‘Half our villages are dying’: How digital nomad hubs are reinvigorating rural Europe

The boom in remote working in recent years has turned major European cities like Lisbon, Barcelona and Berlin into so-called ‘digital nomad hubs’. 

But tensions are running increasingly high between local communities and those who have temporarily set up their laptops in town. 

Whether it’s being priced out of the housing market or cafe owners banning ‘laptop squatters’, locals are speaking out against the negative impacts. 

As these hubs feel ever more crowded and contentious, some entrepreneurs are taking the digital nomad lifestyle in a more mindful direction in the countryside. 

Here, they’re not only welcomed, but generate a positive impact for rural communities. 

While an overabundance of digital nomads and tourists strains local infrastructure in popular cities, many rural parts of Europe have the opposite problem.

Depopulation threatens the existence and vitality of small villages and towns, as younger generations especially migrate towards larger cities.

 “Spain is one the countries in Europe with the biggest demographic gap,” founder of  co-living experience Rooral Juan Barbed tells Euronews Travel. “Half our villages are dying, like in the terminal stage.” 

After years spent travelling and working between some of the world’s biggest cities, Juan was confronted with this decline when he returned to his grandmother’s village following her death. 

At the same time, he was moved by the community’s warm welcome. He felt sure other digital nomads were also craving the sense of connection he found there. 

“We grew up with this narrative that success was in big cities. But now you have infrastructure that can allow you to work from wherever,” says Juan. “We thought, what if we make it easy for people to test how it is to work