A massive Stanford WFH study reveals where the policy is popular—and why: Q&A

Fast Company

16-05-2025

When Nicholas Bloom, the William Eberle Professor of Economics at Stanford University in California, started studying working from home in 2004, 'it was hard to get anyone engaged,' he says. Even in 2018, 'no one had any interest whatsoever.' In 2025, that's hard to fathom. Between the pandemic and technological advancements, WFH has become a norm among white collar workers. Not only has it normalized; it's also destigmatized. The act that used to generate memes of Homer Simpson on the couch, prodding a distant computer with a stick has gained 'positive connotations,' says Bloom. Working from home is seen as a privilege.
It's also here to stay. For their latest study, ' Working from Home in 2025,' Bloom and his collaborators analyzed responses from 16,000 college graduates across 40 countries and discovered that WFH levels appear to have stabilized as of 2025, but its embrace hasn't been universal. WFH rates vary by location: highest in English speaking regions—the U.S., UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand—the rate dips a little across continental Europe, then dips a lot across Africa and Central and South Americas. WFH is least prevalent in Asia.
To be clear, when Bloom says WFH, he's mostly talking about those on hybrid work schedules. 'Sixty percent of people work fully in-person, 30% are hybrid, and 10% are fully remote,' he says of those countries where the policy has stuck. Hybrid typically means Tuesday through Thursdays in the office—a schedule Blooms values at 'about 8% more pay…because it saves two to three hours a week of commuting [and] enables people to live further away' from their offices, often to where real estate is cheaper. Companies also benefit from hybrid policies, Bloom's study found, since fewer employees tend to quit. With all these advantages, you'd think bosses would have embraced WFH worldwide.
'Why on earth does, say, Japan have a third the work from home rates of the U.S.?' Bloom says. After looking at factors including development (Japan is about as developed as the U.S.), population density, industrial structure, and connectivity (no big differences there), it left Bloom and fellow researchers with one notable variable. 'The big factor is cultural,' he says, 'and it's around individualism.'
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