São Paulo Ranks Eighth in a New Digital Nomad City Index
Nomads · RANKINGS
Key Facts
- The resultSão Paulo eighth of 104 cities, scoring 66.67.
- The leaderSeoul first on 73.60, ahead of Tokyo on 72.61.
- The patternJapan takes four of the top ten places.
- The Latin America storySão Paulo is the only city from the region in the ten.
- The measuresCoworking density, culture, internet speed, prices and comfortable weather.
- The caveatThe study was produced by a VPN comparison site, not a research body.
A digital nomad city ranking reported this week puts São Paulo eighth of 104 cities worldwide. It is the only Latin American city in the top ten.
What the ranking says
The digital nomad city ranking runs Seoul, Tokyo, Hanoi, Taipei, Osaka, Barcelona, Madrid, São Paulo, Nagoya and Ho Chi Minh City.
Seoul leads on 73.60 points. São Paulo scores 66.67, level with Madrid in seventh.
East Asia dominates. Six of the ten are Asian cities and four are Japanese.
Europe contributes only Barcelona and Madrid. Latin America contributes only São Paulo, and North America contributes nobody.
How the cities were scored
The digital nomad city ranking began with 150 cities and cut 46 using the United Nations definition of an urban area.
The factors are coworking-space density, entertainment venues, cultural institutions, national internet speeds and local prices.
There is also a weather measure, counting days between 15 and 28 degrees with under five millimetres of rain. The study calls these comfortable working days.
No weightings have been published. We do not know how much any factor counted, so we are not going to describe the index as weighted by anything.
Who produced it, and why that matters
The digital nomad city ranking came from a Japanese VPN comparison website. It was reported by Euronews on 17 August.
That is not a research institution. It is a commercial site funded by advertising, which reviews VPN products and earns from referrals.
We could not find the study itself. A direct look at the site turned up VPN reviews and comparisons, with no nomad research section at all.
So we can cite Euronews citing the study. We cannot cite the study, because we cannot find it.
The tell in the numbers
In the digital nomad city ranking, Madrid and São Paulo both score 66.67. Yet Madrid is placed above.
No tiebreak is published. That is the signature of a scoring table where the workings have not been shown.
None of this means the ranking is wrong. It means it is an opinion presented as a measurement.
Treat it as an interesting datapoint rather than a league table with authority behind it.
What we cannot tell you about the rest of Latin America
Coverage stops at the top ten. There are no published ranks or scores for Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Buenos Aires or Medellín.
Nor for Bogotá, Lima, Santiago or Montevideo. We cannot say they ranked low, and we cannot say they were excluded.
That is a real limitation of a study nobody can open. São Paulo at eighth is the only Latin American fact in it.
Anyone telling you where Medellín placed is guessing.
Why São Paulo scores where it does
São Paulo is plausible on the criteria used. It has an enormous coworking market, the deepest cultural infrastructure in South America, and prices well below Western Europe.
The weather measure probably helps too. The city’s temperate plateau climate sits inside the study’s comfort band for much of the year.
What the index does not measure is the thing residents mention first, which is commuting time and safety.
It also does not measure visa access, which for a nomad is often the decisive factor.
The visa point the ranking misses
Brazil has had a digital nomad visa since 2022, granted for a year and renewable once.
The applicant must show remote employment or contracts with a company outside Brazil, and a minimum monthly income or bank balance.
That is a concrete advantage São Paulo has over several cities ranked above it. It does not appear in the scoring.
For anyone actually choosing a base, the visa rules matter more than a coworking count.
How to read rankings like this
With any digital nomad city ranking, ask who paid for the study and what they sell. A VPN site producing a nomad ranking is doing marketing, and that is not a scandal, only a fact to disclose.
Ask whether the primary study is readable. If only a syndicated write-up exists, the ranking cannot be checked by anyone.
Then ask what is missing. Here it is visas, safety and commuting, which is most of what actually determines whether a city works.
São Paulo in the global top ten is a good headline. It is not a reason to move.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where did São Paulo rank?
Eighth of 104 cities, with 66.67 points. It is the only Latin American city in the published top ten.
Which city came first?
Seoul, on 73.60 points, ahead of Tokyo on 72.61 and Hanoi on 71.86. Japan took four of the top ten places.
Who produced the ranking?
A Japanese VPN comparison website, reported by Euronews on 17 August 2026. It is a commercial site rather than a research institution, and the underlying study is not publicly available.
How were the cities scored?
By coworking density, entertainment venues, cultural institutions, national internet speed, local prices and days of comfortable working weather. No weightings were published.