This article is in partnership with Day Translations.

The Canary Islands have been a popular destination for remote workers for a number of years.

Local magazine Canarian Weekly reported that the remote working community has been increasing in size, particularly among IT specialists looking for office hubs where they can hire a desk and use shared facilities.

Being Mindful of the Local Situation

News reports have shown that locals in mainland Spain and the Canary Islands are getting fed up with tourists. This sense of unease is mostly due to the fact that islands, in particular, are not equipped to cater for thousands or millions of extra visitors each year. The infrastructure simply cannot cope with the extra demand and droughts are happening more frequently due to changes in the climate. Then there is the issue of increased costs for locals and the insufficient supply of housing which puts pressure on prices. Remote workers tend to rent properties at high prices for short periods of time; these properties would have attracted a much lower rent when marketed to locals, who would need them for the medium to long term. Places like Barcelona have already introduced rules to ban short term rentals in the city centre in an attempt to ease the housing problem.

The islands are remote and far from mainland Europe, which comes with a whole set of challenges including receiving supplies and being more exposed to lack of fresh water. The Canary Islands are also more geared towards outdoor activities such as trekking, offering less than other countries in terms of cultural attractions. However, the draw of having an annual average temperature of 20 degrees Celsius and a mild climate is enough to lure remote workers to the archipelago.

Another benefit of spending time in the Canary Islands is the comparatively low cost of living, as transport and food are very affordable.

It’s important then to be mindful and be more informed about the local situation in the Canary Islands. It’s particularly important to be as aware as possible of your impact as a visitor – it’s a trade off between the spending power you are bringing to the country versus how many resources are needed and being supplied for your day-to-day life.

The average salary in Spain was about 29,000 euros per year in 2022, a considerable drop of almost 3,000 euros since 2009 when Spanish salaries were at their peak. The minimum wage in Spain was 1,080 euros in 2023. The average annual salary in the Canary Island is lower than in the mainland, as it only reached 23,000 euros in 2021.

Remote workers from other countries should also consider learning the Spanish language in an effort to become more integrated into the local communities, because often digital nomads and remote workers tend to lead separate lives from the locals.

What Does Spain Need from Remote Workers?

The number of remote workers in the Canary Islands has increased at a rate of 10% a year since 2020 and currently there are approximately 8,000 of them in the country. These remote workers come from the US, Germany and France mainly.

Spain put a whole programme in place in 2020 to attract more remote workers to the Canary Islands with a target of 30,000 remote workers by 2030. By 2022 this figure was already exceeded as 86,000 people worked remotely in the Canary Islands and it was calculated that their spending totalled 167 million euro.

Large investments in IT including creating brand new co-working hubs, together with various incentives and streamlined processes meant that the Spanish government has made it easier to work remotely in the Canary Islands. The rate of corporate tax is lower for tech companies that want to have a presence in the Canary Islands.

The aim is to boost innovation and economic growth by supporting start ups and remote workers that specialise in technology.

In 2024 the Spanish government announced an investment of 700k euros to attract more digital nomads to the Canary Islands, quoting that digital nomads add value to the islands.