VanLifers are people who travel, work and live on the road in vans, RVs, and other vehicles.
And according to the recently released MBO Partners research study on digital nomads, there are about 1.7 million VanLifers roaming the country. Emergent Research (that's us) worked with MBO Partners on this study.
VanLife, which is a subset of the broader digital nomad trend, has been popularized in part by millions of #VanLife posts on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter.
These posts tend to show pictures of young, adventurous, photogenic millennials - often with adorable dogs - enjoying the great outdoors in beautiful places.
For example, the picture below is from the blog of the #VanLife Hearnes family and shows them having fun while touring Utah with their dogs.
You can also find all sorts of pictures on social media of VanLifers doing yoga on the beach or next to a mountain.
But the VanLife movement is much broader with all age groups participating, including aging baby boomers living, working, and traveling in RVs.
Although 2020 was the 3rd year of MBO Partners' ongoing digital nomad study, it was the first year specific survey questions on VanLifers were included. So there's no historical data to compare the numbers with.
But we're sure they increased substantially this year as COVID-19 has resulted in digital nomads staying closer to home (see last week's post on the study for more details).
One indicator of the growing interest in VanLife is Van manufacturers have noticed.
Business Insiders RV makers are rushing to cater to the new 'work from anywhere' crowd as the pandemic continues to force people to rethink their lives covers the surge in demand for RVs and Vans. Key quote:
"Many RV, camper van, and travel trailer makers have started catering their road travel builds to accommodate the rising popularity of digital nomads and "work from anywhere" crowd amid the pandemic."
The VanLife is a trend that has been accelerated and amplified by the pandemic.
We believe post-COVID the shift to work from anywhere and hybrid work models will result in the continued growth in the number of VanLifers over the next few years.
