When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, every task that could adapt to a remote activity did—fitness classes, happy hours, even doctor's visits—and, crucially, the workday.
But plenty stayed in-person, partly depending on the task or job. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in October 2020 found that 71% of people who could do their jobs remotely were working remotely. Still, lower-income workers were less likely to be doing so, regardless of what their job duties were.
Geography mattered, too: Cities were more likely to have remote-friendly jobs, according to an OECD analysis, but many rural areas sought to attract workers who could now work from anywhere.
The shift to remote work didn't completely end once offices reopened for in-person work: According to another survey from Pew Research Center, 59% of respondents were still working remotely in 2022.
ClickUp used Census Bureau data from the 2021 American Community Survey to find the county in each state with the largest percentage of people working from home at least some of the time.
Of course, the reason many workers are choosing to telework is different in 2023 than it was in March 2020. In the same 2022 Pew Research Center survey, respondents said working from home made it easier to balance their personal lives with work and meet deadlines. Fewer remote workers said they were concerned about being exposed to COVID-19 than in 2020.
Furthermore, a 2022 survey conducted by McKinsey and Company found that of the professionals surveyed who had the opportunity to work from home, 87% took advantage of it. A flexible working arrangement was even cited as the third-most powerful motivator to look for a new job.
So what is the state of remote work across the country? Nearly 18% of Americans who responded to the 2021 Census Bureau American Community Survey said they worked from home at least some during the previous week. That's 27.6 million people—roughly triple the 9 million who said they worked from home in 2019.
Of course, the amount of remote workers varies from state to state: Nearly half of District of Columbia professionals worked remotely in 2021, with nearly a quarter of workers in Washington, Maryland, Colorado, and Massachusetts also logging on at home.
In this analysis, ties were broken by the number of workers in a county. Single-year American Community Survey estimates were only available for about 620 counties—those with populations over 65,000—out of over 3,000 nationwide, but were used instead of five-year estimates due to the extreme changes in work-from-home trends over the past few years. States are listed here in alphabetical order.
Keep reading to discover where most people work from home in your state.
