How widespread is remote work in Europe? Davide Luca, Cem Özgüzel and Zhiwu Wei show that remote working continues to grow in European countries, but hybrid models rather than fully remote roles now dominate.
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a rapid and widespread adoption of remote work across many countries. This shift was initially viewed as a short-term adjustment, and many commentators have recently discussed whether workers are returning to the office, either voluntarily or involuntarily. As several governments have proposed to limit remote work, for example for civil servants, the return to office work remains at the centre of a broader public discussion.
Despite the heated discussion, cross-country evidence on how often workers continue to work from home, especially at the subnational level, remains scarce. This raises an important question: how widespread is remote work in Europe, who benefits, and what does this mean for the urban-rural divide? In this piece, we use the latest European Union Labour Force Survey data to track how remote work patterns have changed in Europe since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hybrid is now the dominant form of remote work in Europe
Our analysis of recent data from 30 European countries shows a clear shift towards hybrid work. In 2023, the share of workers who occasionally worked from home, defined as working remotely less than half of the time, continued to increase. By contrast, the share of fully remote workers – those working mainly from home – declined slightly compared to the peaks reached during the COVID-19 lockdowns (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Evolution of remote work across Europe for 30 European countries, 2019-2023
Source: Authors’ elaboration of data from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS).
By 2023, nearly one in five European workers were in a hybrid arrangement, while only one in ten worked fully remotely. This pattern differs from recent trends in the United States, where the share of remote workers has stabilised or slightly declined. In Europe, remote work continues to expand, but growth is increasingly driven by hybrid arrangements rather than full remote work.
This shift reflects the broader normalisation of flexible working, with employees dividing their time between home and the office. Instead of reversing the remote work gains made during the pandemic, employers and workers appear to be adopting routines that balance flexibility with in-person interaction.
The evolving geography of remote work
Fully remote work surged across Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic, peaking in 2021, and has since declined but remains well above pre-pandemic levels (see Figure 2). In countries such as Belgium, Finland, Ireland and Sweden, fully remote workers now account for approximately 15% of the workforce, exceeding the European average.
Figure 2: Shares of remote workers by country, 2019-2023
Source: Authors’ own elaboration of data from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS).
In contrast, hybrid work has continued to expand in most countries even after the pandemic. In Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Norway, more than 30% of workers now work at least partly from home. Although several countries in Southern and Eastern Europe have also experienced increases in hybrid work, overall rates in these regions remain significantly lower than those observed in Northern Europe (see Malta, Italy, Cyprus and Lithuania).
Cities still lead remote work adoption
Since the pandemic, fully remote and hybrid work has increased across all types of areas, but not at the same rate (see Figure 3). Cities still lead in remote and hybrid jobs because they concentrate industries and occupations that lend themselves to remote work. The urban-rural divide remains clear. Remote work has spread beyond major cities, but structural differences in job types and digital access persist, slowing its expansion in rural areas.
Figure 3: Evolution of remote work across Europe for 30 European countries, distinguishing by the degree of urbanisation, 2019-2023
Source: Authors’ own elaboration of data from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS).
Hybrid work became the dominant form of remote working in 2023, especially across professional occupations (see Figure 4). Many roles in education, finance, consulting and public administration now involve a blend of remote and in-person work, combining remote desk-based tasks with face-to-face collaboration.
Figure 4: Individual drivers of remote work
Source: Authors’ own elaboration of data from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS).
By contrast, fully remote work remains concentrated in a few sectors, such as information and communication technologies (ICT) and specialised services. Most other sectors have seen fully remote work stabilise or decline since the pandemic peak. These patterns highlight a growing divide: while many workers now benefit from some degree of remote flexibility, only a small share can perform their jobs entirely off-site.
What explains these patterns?
Individual characteristics are the main predictors of remote work opportunities (see Figure 4). Workers with higher levels of education, those who are self-employed and those in certain sectors and occupations are much more likely to work remotely.
This echoes findings from our earlier research, which analysed remote work trends from 2019 to 2021. In that study, we demonstrated that over 85% of the urban-rural gap in remote work could be attributed to individual-level factors, such as education, occupation, or industry, while the remaining portion was due to differences in regional characteristics, including internet infrastructure and excess mortality rates.
Supporting an inclusive shift
Remote work offers potential benefits for workers, firms and the environment, including improved work-life balance and reduced transport emissions. However, unless actively supported, these benefits may remain concentrated in already advantaged areas and among high-skilled workers.
To make remote work more inclusive, governments and employers should focus on reskilling and upskilling workers for occupations more suited to remote work; promoting remote-capable sectors outside of cities; and improving digital infrastructure in rural and underserved regions. Policies should also recognise that hybrid work is the new norm, and plan urban mobility, office space and public services accordingly.
For more information, see the authors’ accompanying paper in Regional Studies.
Note: This article gives the views of the authors, not the position of EUROPP – European Politics and Policy or the London School of Economics. Featured image credit: BongkarnGraphic / Shutterstock.com
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