The place you reside can have a big effect on whether or not you make money working from home.
Throughout Europe, employees in Finland are round 16 instances extra more likely to work remotely than employees in Romania, highlighting clear gaps in how nations embrace working from residence.
Based on Eurostat, 20.5% of Finnish employees often labored from residence in 2025, in comparison with simply 1.3% in Romania. Eurostat defines ‘regular residence working’ as finishing up productive make money working from home for at the least half of the working days in a four-week reference interval.
“Distant working has grow to be a everlasting characteristic of the labor market, however its extent largely relies on what kinds of jobs a rustic has and the way corporations handle their employees,” EBRD Deputy Director of Analysis Cevat Giray Aksoy instructed Euronews Enterprise.
So which European nations have the best charges of working from residence? And what explains the broad disparities between nations?
Finland and Eire are far aside
Finland and Eire are by far the perfect relating to distant work. In 2025, round one in 5 employees in each nations will often make money working from home (20.5% and 19.2% respectively), greater than double the EU common of 8.8%.
No different European nation has a distant work charge greater than 14%. The subsequent group contains Belgium, which ranks third with 13.2%, adopted by Germany (13%) and Malta (12.5%).
A number of nations in Northern and Western Europe, together with Sweden, Estonia, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, and Austria, even have telecommuting charges above 10%, which usually means a couple of in 10 employees make money working from home.
In the meantime, Romania (1.3%), Bulgaria (1.4%), North Macedonia (1.9%), Greece (2.3%) and Italy (2.7%) all recorded charges beneath 3%. In a number of different nations in Southern and Jap Europe, together with Serbia, Turkey, Hungary, Cyprus, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, distant working charges stay beneath 5%.
Telecommuting in main economies
The share of telecommuting varies extensively among the many EU’s 4 largest economies. Germany ranks fourth general with 13%, whereas Italy’s share is comparatively low at 2.7%. France (11%) is above the EU common, whereas Spain (7.9%) is barely beneath.
Eurostat knowledge reveals clear regional disparities, with working from residence usually being extra widespread in northern and northwestern Europe, and fewer widespread in japanese and southeastern Europe.
Though the UK will not be included in Eurostat’s knowledge, separate analysis reveals that the UK has the best distant working charge in all of Europe.
Three elements that trigger variations between nations
Cevat Giray Aksoy stated that the big disparities between nations are primarily attributable to three elements.
The primary is financial construction. Nations with excessive employment charges in data and communication know-how (ICT), finance, skilled companies, authorities, analysis, and different desk-based occupations will naturally even have excessive charges of telecommuting.
Nations with excessive shares of employment in manufacturing, agriculture, building, tourism, logistics, retail, and face-to-face service industries have decrease employment charges as a result of many roles merely can’t be accomplished remotely.
“This helps clarify why service-intensive and knowledge-intensive economies are usually on the high, and nations with giant face-to-face sectors are usually on the backside,” he instructed Euronews Enterprise.
Office tradition additionally issues
Nonetheless, job construction will not be every thing. Aksoy pointed to the function of office tradition. “Nations the place work is organized with emphasis on autonomy and trustworthiness are likely to have greater charges of distant work, whereas nations with stronger norms of face-to-face supervision and face-to-face coordination are likely to have decrease charges of distant work,” he stated.
Save time and supply flexibility
Labor demand can also be essential. Aksoy defined that distant work is effective for workers, saving commuting time and growing flexibility, particularly for folks and other people with lengthy commutes.
Their analysis reveals that working from residence saves round 72 minutes per day on common throughout nations, and employees allocate a good portion of this saved time to work and caregiving.
“Cross-country disparities shouldn’t be seen as a easy rating of ‘fashionable’ and ‘conventional’ labor markets, however because of variations in occupational buildings, digital readiness, administration tradition, commuting prices and pandemic experiences,” Aksoy stated.
Digital infrastructure and the function of regulation
Jorge Cabrita, Senior Analysis Supervisor at Eurofound, additionally highlighted the function of digital infrastructure. Quicker, extra accessible web means extra distant work, however poor connectivity generally is a hindrance.
“Legal guidelines may additionally play a task. A number of EU member states (together with France, Eire and the Netherlands) have given employees the suitable to request distant work, which may itself act as a catalyst,” he instructed Euronews Enterprise.
