The modern business environment has evolved in leaps and bounds thanks to the fast internet and portable devices. Besides this, the millennial generation which is slowly dominating the work environment, prefer jobs with flexible working hours, that also does not require them being in the office from Monday to Friday.

In a recent study, over 30% of the population are freelancers and leverage on technology for work. These freelancers are also known as digital nomads and forecasts show that the number will continue to increase exponentially, and by 2035, there will be more than 1 billion digital nomads. And what better place to enjoy this work-life freedom than in sunny Barcelona.

In 2015, Spain, and especially the city of Barcelona, had the third highest number of digital nomads using over 300 co-working spaces throughout the city. Today, Barcelona is the fastest growing digital nomad community in the world, who can work anywhere, from coffee shops, hotels, and public libraries, to name a few. Read the rest of this article…

This post has been updated from the original to reflect the latest (pretty) charts available.

Profile of foreign residents

I’m fascinated by data. Well not so much data, as the informative ways it can be displayed. One of my favourite coffee table books is called Information is Beautiful (link at the end).

There’s a page on the Ajuntament de Barcelona website called Studies on Immigration that contains some great information about Barcelona immigration statistics. I spent far too long poring over these demographics when I should have been working. I thought you might find some of them interesting too!

Below are some snapshots from the Població Estrangera a Barcelona (Foreign Population in Barcelona) PDF about some of the demographics in Barcelona. Unless you happen to be a bird of prey click on any of the thumbnails to scroll through larger versions. Read the rest of this article…

You’ve decided you want to move to Barcelona. Now what? You need to find a place to stay. You are looking at the neighbourhoods, checking where the best bars are, where you university or workplace is located and then you start looking for flats. But money is also an issue right?

Well, the student accommodation provider Uniplaces thought about it and decided to help you out. Based on their own research, they used the Barcelona metro map to create a “Rent Price Map”, with the average rent price per metro station. Read the rest of this article…

What do you like least about Barcelona? The guys at OK Apartment Barcelona wanted to know. So they surveyed some of the expats in the city (850 people from 26 countries) to find out what they least liked about Barcelona. Read the rest of this article…

Life quality scores in Barcelona vs London

Sharing my time between London and Barcelona as I do I’m lucky to be able to appreciate the pros and cons of both of these ultimately fabulous cities.

Of course the pay is much better in London, but then the cost of living is much higher, nearly 3 times as high. The weather is, of course, better in Barcelona as we are all well aware and there’s a blossoming startup scene. In fact by most metrics the cities are pretty comparable, until it comes to Housing and that Cost-of-Living where Barcelona outshines London by far. And did I mention the weather? Read the rest of this article…