INFPs are the personality type most likely to want fully remote work. So why does the nomad life often stay a daydream? Our survey data reveals the answer.
What’s Coming Up
- Key Takeaways
- The Nomad Daydream That Follows INFPs Around
- The Introvert Most Drawn to the Nomad Life
- How Often, and How Long, INFPs Travel
- INFPs Readily Switch Jobs and Homes
- Money Leads, but Know-How and Company Hold INFPs Back
- Why INFPs Are Built for the Nomad Life
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Further Reading
Key Takeaways
- INFPs are one of the personality types whose natural tendencies make them a strong fit for the digital nomad life. They want fully remote work more than any other type, and are more likely than other Introverts to prefer long, leisurely trips.
- When INFPs do travel, if they have the means, they are more likely to stay away longer than almost anyone else in the survey. They travel less often than most types, so each trip becomes a deeper immersion in the place they visit.
- INFPs carry fewer permanent life anchors than most personality types. They switch jobs more readily and are usually more willing to relocate for work.
- Money is the main thing standing between INFPs and more travel. This is the same barrier that nearly every personality type names first.
- Beyond money, two less obvious obstacles can hold INFPs back from their travel dreams. They are more likely than others to feel that they lack the know-how to plan a trip, and that they lack someone to travel with.
The Nomad Daydream That Follows INFPs Around
There’s a particular daydream that shows up for a lot of people with the INFP personality type (Mediators). It often includes a small apartment somewhere they’ve never lived and enough financial freedom to stay three months before moving on to somewhere else. For many of them, the digital nomad life sounds like a dream. And the data proves it.
In our “Work, Travel, and Nomadic Tendencies” survey, we asked people of all personality types about their relationships with work, travel, and what stops them from doing more of either. The data for INFPs – who are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Prospecting personalities – was quite revealing.
The Introvert Most Drawn to the Nomad Life
In our “Work, Travel, and Nomadic Tendencies” survey, we asked, “If given the option, would you choose to work 100% remotely?” INFPs said yes at 63%. That’s the highest rate of any of the 16 types.
To be honest, this doesn’t come as a surprise. All eight Introverted personality types – who recharge in quieter, lower-stimulation settings rather than through social contact – dominate the top of that list.
But INFPs distinguish themselves from the rest of their fellow Introverts in an interesting way.
When we asked how often people would ideally like to travel for work, a full 12% of INFPs chose the most extreme option available: “I’d live on the road.” Another 15% said they would want to travel seven times or more. Yes, it’s true that more INFPs (54%) said they would prefer to never travel for work, or limit those trips to a maximum of three per year. But a full quarter of them would be happy to spend more time roaming – making them the Introverted types most likely to say so.
How often would you ideally like to travel for work?
Source: Work, Travel, and Nomadic Tendencies
INFPs also want their trips to stretch. Asked whether they prefer shorter or longer trips, 68% of INFPs chose the longer option, the fourth-highest in the survey.
If you look at those three answers together, an interesting picture develops. INFPs are among the personality types most likely to appreciate – if not outright desire – remote work. And for many of them, there’s a strong pull for a leisurely sort of travel that lets them savor each place they visit.
How Often, and How Long, INFPs Travel
Now, let’s take a closer look specifically at INFP travel tendencies.
When we asked how often people travel for pleasure, 30% of INFPs said less than once per year. This was the third-highest rate for this option out of all the 16 types. If you compare that to how many people said they would want to travel more often, it would seem that the Introverts most likely to want to live on the road are, in practice, mostly not going anywhere.
How often do you travel for pleasure (regardless of the duration of each trip)?
Source: Work, Travel, and Nomadic Tendencies
We’ll get to why they don’t actually travel that often in a moment. For now, let’s look at what happens when they do.
Among people who do travel, nearly 4% of INFPs said most of their trips run longer than four weeks, which puts them third of all 16 types on that answer.
When traveling for pleasure, how long are most of your trips?
Source: Work, Travel, and Nomadic Tendencies
This is obviously a small minority of overall respondents. The vast majority (90%) of INFPs said that most of their leisurely trips last less than two weeks. Still, it’s a revealing number that continues to build the case that INFPs have a stronger pull toward digital nomadism than other types.
Only a small slice of the world’s travelers live anything close to the nomad life. Look inside that slice, at the people taking the longest trips, and you’ll find a lot of INFPs.
INFPs Readily Switch Jobs and Homes
INFPs are a personality type strongly drawn to remote work. They are also more likely than many personality types to take longer trips when they travel for pleasure. So what’s stopping them from combining these preferences into a single way of life and embracing digital nomadism full-on?
Well, it’s not always about loyalty to a single place or employer.
In our survey we asked how beneficial an opportunity would have to be to get someone to move across the country. A solid majority of INFPs (72%) said that they would need to be offered moderate to major benefits, but just over 13% of INFPs picked “Any excuse to move!”
How beneficial of an opportunity would it take to get you to move across the country?
Source: Work, Travel, and Nomadic Tendencies
That’s second of all 16 types, behind only ENTPs (Debaters). Ask about moving to a different country, and 15% of INFPs said any excuse would do, fourth in the survey.
How beneficial of an opportunity would it take to get you to move to another country?
Source: Work, Travel, and Nomadic Tendencies
Their working lives look similarly loose. Asked whether they stick with one job or switch frequently, 36% of INFPs said they tend to switch, placing them fifth-highest among the 16 types.
Do you tend to stick with one job for a long time or switch jobs frequently?
Source: Work, Travel, and Nomadic Tendencies
Only a sliver of any type will move house on a whim or shift around between jobs. Inside that sliver, INFPs are heavily represented. All of which raises an obvious question. If an INFP is so much more willing to shake up their life, what’s holding them back?
Money Leads, but Know-How and Company Hold INFPs Back
We asked people what the biggest thing preventing more travel is. Like all other personality types, INFPs chose money – at 58%. This was the third-highest rate of the 16 types. It’s also noteworthy that they were among the least likely to say they were held back by time and life commitments. They were also among the most likely to claim a lack of know-how or a lack of company as their top excuse.
If you’d like to travel for pleasure more than you currently do, what is the biggest thing that is preventing you from doing so?
Source: Work, Travel, and Nomadic Tendencies
The revealing numbers are those on the margins. Money leads for every type in the survey. It’s the barrier they share with everyone. What’s particular to INFPs is a missing map and a missing travel buddy.
Why INFPs Are Built for the Nomad Life
Digital nomadism is something that gets dreamed about far more than it gets lived. Plenty of people picture themselves in a country they’ve never been to, laptop open on a balcony somewhere with a spectacular view. Very few ever pull it off. It asks you to line up work, money, timing, and nerve all at once, and most of us never get all four pointing the same direction at the same moment.
INFPs are no exception to that. For every INFP who’s actually out there roaming, there are many more with the daydream still running in the background.
But if you go looking inside the communities of people who did figure it out, the survey suggests you’d find a lot of INFPs among them. The wish for remote work is there. The underlying pull toward long, immersive trips is there. So is the flexibility around jobs and addresses that makes the whole thing possible.
So yes, an INFP can be a digital nomad. Few types are better suited to it.
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