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The Cheapest Places to Live in the World: 2025

Each year I do an updated article on the cheapest places to live in the world, something I’ve been doing for more than a decade now. It’s not that there are drastic changes from year to year, so I’m leaving last year’s version up if you want to see that rundown (linked at the end), but we do get changes because of exchange rate differences, visa updates, and geopolitical situations. 

the cheapest places to live in the world

As we head into 2025, the U.S. dollar is quite strong, something I’ve been enjoying during two months of travel in Europe, but that won’t last forever. So it’s best to look at the long term if you’re planning to become an expat and not a digital nomad. If you are going to roam around the world for two months here, three months there, then you can and should take advantage of temporary fluctuations though. 

Some of the cheapest places to live have been in place since I wrote the first edition of A Better Life for Half the Price and they’ll probably still top the list five years from now. Just because of much lower local wages, lower real estate costs, and a host of other economic factors, these bargains tend to stay reasonable for anyone earning in dollars, euros, or pounds from a wealthier country. 

So what’s the short answer? Where are the cheapest places to live in the world? If you want the kind of surface-level TL:DR answer that ChatGPT and Google’s AI tools are spitting out after scraping the info from sites like mine every day, here it is by continent:

The Americas: Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina (for now)

Europe: Bulgaria, Romania, Bosnia, Albania, Montenegro, Georgia

Asia: India, Nepal, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia

Africa: Egypt, Morocco, South Africa (for now)

The two “for now” entries on there are due to exchange rate anomalies that probably won’t last, which also includes Brazil, so they’re better for digital nomads and remote workers than expatriates putting down roots. 

As I always say, cost alone shouldn’t determine where you’re moving to unless you’re really broke. Just because a place is inexpensive doesn’t mean it’s the ideal place for you to live. It could be worth spending a tad more in Mexico or Panama, for instance, to step up your quality of life over dictator-run Nicaragua. You might want to spend 3/5 of what you do now to live in Spain or Portugal instead of spending half or less to be in a colder country further north. 

You need to think about what place feels right to you too instead of what just looks good on paper. You can only get that by traveling to a place, preferably doing a trial run for weeks or a month.

You also have to be honest about your ability to fit in and learn the language if you’re staying on for years. It’s pretty tough to learn Hungarian or Vietnamese and they’re both useless elsewhere. It’s easy to learn Spanish in a variety of ways, even online with platforms like Preply, then you can use it in your travels too in many other countries.

A few notes on my authority and expertise before I get into details on specific places. I have lived abroad in three countries and live in Mexico permanently, a legal resident. I have interviewed more than 100 expats around the world for the two book editions and articles on this Cheapest Destinations Blog. All the photos in this post I took myself while doing on-the-spot research.

I frequently appear as a podcast guest talking about living abroad and I’m the editor of the Nomadico newsletter for digital nomads and location-independent workers.

If you want to hear from me regularly, sign up for that or other options listed at the end. 

Updates on the Cheapest Places to Live in Latin America

As I said in the beginning, changes in specific countries are usually gradual over the course of years rather than being sudden, but there are adjustments to report on sometimes. Here are a few 2025 highlights to be aware of for the cheapest places to live in Latin America. 

Living in Mexico

Living in Mexico as an expat

I putting this one first not because it’s the cheapest, but because it’s the closest, with the best travel connections to the USA and Canada. Europeans can get there easily via Cancun. The exchange rate has gone from 20 to 16 to 20 over the past few years, which is quite a yo-yo. As I write this it’s around 20 pesos to the dollar again, quite good, making prices very reasonable. When it drops to 17, where it spent a year and half, not so much. 

Now the prices I outlined in this post on my life in Guanajuato and what it costs me are accurate again. Sure, there’s been inflation like everywhere, but more for imported goods than domestic ones. Rents have gone up in some high-demand areas like the best neighborhoods in Mexico City and the center of San Miguel de Allende, but in other cities they’ve actually dropped in dollar terms. 

Just be advised that the income requirement for foreigners is tied to the Mexican minimum wage, which thankfully for them keeps going up. We have to show 100 times that wage to qualify for residency though, so Mexico is no longer a place to get legal if you’re not a high earner or don’t have a large amount in savings. You’re better off coming in and out as a tourist and getting 180 days at a time. 

Numbeo says that living in Puerto Vallarta is half the cost of living in San Diego, while living in Mexico City is 47% less than the cost of living in Chicago. Lower still when compared to NYC or San Francisco. 

Ecuador for Expats

Ecuador is, by most measures, the best bargain in the Americas for people who are looking to drastically lower their expenses when they move. You can rent an apartment easily for $400 to $1,000 in a nice area, the latter being at the luxury building end of the scale. Restaurant prices can be a low as a few dollars, transportation is cheap, and domestic help is super affordable. 

If you’re in one of the cities, healthcare is professional and reasonably priced in Ecuador. It’s a dollar economy, so no currency fluctuations, and the minimum monthly income requirement to get residency is around $1,400, which is 1/3 of what you need in Mexico, by comparison.

If you want to buy property, this is one of the best values in the world. See this article on what luxury real estate costs in Cuenca and back it down from there for your budget. With an investment of less than $50K, you can qualify for an investor visa for residency. 

If you’re a retiree in Ecuador, you get a lot of extra perks, including discounts on flights. 

Nicaragua

Unfortunately, no updates here. Still a dictatorship, still a place not many foreigners want to move to. It’s super cheap to do so though if you want to at least chill out by the beach for a month or two. 

Expat Life in Guatemala

cheapest places to live in the world - Guatemala

I was in this Central American country last year and discussed the travel costs in Guatemala soon afterward. Prices there felt about the same as they did in Mexico, a little more for food and beer because the quality wasn’t as good. Lake Atitlan is very welcoming to vegetarians and vegans though, so a lot of them gravitate there for a month or two at a time. 

Outside of Antigua, rents are a bargain throughout Guatemala and the capital city looks a little nicer and feels a little safer each time I’m there. This is the closest country to get to after Mexico when heading south from the USA or Canada and you can move overland to a lot of other places. 

Colombia Living

The cost of living in Colombia varies greatly according to how your own currency is doing against the Colombian peso. Over the past few years that currency has moved up and down a lot, but has generally been favorable to all those foreigners heading to Medellin or Cartagena. 

There are certainly cheaper places to live than Colombia, but many who live there would say it can’t be beat on a whole lot of factors that are hard to put on paper. It’s a fun and vibrant country that puts fun first and it feels like a land of opportunity for those running their own business or investing in real estate. 

According to Numbeo, the average rent in Medellin for a 3BR apartment in the city center is $789 and most people I’ve talked to who live there are getting by on less than $2K per month easily if they’re on a budget. Or they’re still spending what they did in the USA and living a life of luxury in a penthouse, ordering in food every day. 

Argentina and Brazil (for now)

Brazil - now one of the cheap places to live abroad as a digital nomad

I’m lumping these together because over the past year they were both terrific values thanks to weak currencies. Brazil is cheaper than it has ever been for people earning in dollars or euros abroad, so if it has been on your list, get down there fast before their reciprocal visa fee kicks back in for Americans and Canadians. 

There’s some chatter that prices are picking up in Argentina, which is kind of strange since local wages are not keeping up with inflation, but expect to pay more this year for Buenos Aires restaurants where foreigners eat, national parks, and attractions. 

Also worth researching: Honduras, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil (for now)

The Cheapest Places to Live in Europe

cheapest places to live abroad in Europe - Bosnia

In general, the lower the average wages, the lower the cost of living in Europe. This can be skewed a little by tax levels, how many tourists are visiting, and other factors, but it’s a good rule of thumb anyway. 

Europe overall is less expensive than the USA or Canada though, especially when you look at rent and healthcare costs, not to mention a glass of wine with dinner. 

Bosnia for the Lowest Prices in Europe

By the measure of wages, Bosnia-Herzegovina is the best bargain overall if you’re looking at the cheapest places to live abroad in Europe. It’s less than half the cost of Croatia next door. From taxi rides to rents to meals out, Bosnia continues to be an undiscovered bargain and there’s plenty to see and do.

It’s also easy to combine a trip to here with one to Montenegro and Albania. If you wanted you could also head to North Macedonia, and Greece in one direction, Serbia and Bulgaria in another. 

If you pull up Sarajevo on Airbnb, you can find a monthly rental for $534 to $1,094. It’ll be less than that if you work a tad harder in your search. 

Albania = Greece for Less

cheap place to live for Americans - Albania

The beaches of Albania look a whole lot like the beaches of Greece, yet when we crossed the border from Corfu to Sarande on a ferry last year, the apartment and restaurant prices dropped in half. And that’s at the prime beach resort area. Get just a little off the main tourist route and Albania is even more of bargain. 

As I mentioned in this post on finding rentals abroad for a month or more, even if you’re in a hurry and just use Airbnb, you can find a nice two-bedroom apartment in Tirana for under $800 a month. If you’re American you can stay for a year just on a tourist visa, so for now this is a great Schengen Zone escape for nomads wanting to spend more than three months in Europe. 

Living in Bulgaria

I’ve written about the cost of living in Bulgaria and have spent a lot of time with nomads living in Bansko when I was there twice for the Nomad Fest. I’m a big fan of the country since I like to spend a lot of time i nature in the mountains when possible, but Bulgaria has some Black Sea beaches as well. 

Prices have gone up over the years as word has gotten out, but this is a country where you can still find a nice apartment for less than $500 a month in most cities and you can buy a condo for less than the credit limit on your Amex. If you’re willing to fix up a house in a village, the purchase will cost you less than a used Toyota from the 2010s.

Unfortunately for nomads, Bulgaria became part of the Schengen Zone in 2024. So it’s still one of the cheapest places to live abroad, but it’s a lot easier for Europeans to move there than people from the Americas. 

cheap living in Bulgaria, where the skiing is a bargain too

Me enjoying bargain ski slopes in Bulgaria

Montenegro for Mountains and the Sea

You don’t hear a whole lot about living in Montenegro, but this remains one of the cheapest places to live in Europe and there’s a small but thriving expat community. Even if you live by the sea, it’s not that expensive to rent an apartment here and Numbeo estimates that monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Herceg Novi is $708. They estimate that living costs are half what you’d spend in Spain.

There’s only one place here where you’ll deal with throngs of tourist too, on the gorgeous Bay of Kotor.

Fast Internet and Low Prices in Romania

One key change in Romania happened in 2024: the country became part of the Schengen Zone. That’s bad news for those who used to duck into Romania for a while to wait out the time they could return to the zone. Now this is part of the three-month limit. 

If you’re a EU resident that doesn’t matter though and if you want to stick around for good, you can get residency here and stop worrying about the limit. Prices here are still a bargain and this country continues to show up on lists of places with the fastest internet speeds if you’re working. 

Also worth considering: Republic of Georgia, Portugal (outside Lisbon and Porto), Slovakia.

Living in Asia for Less

Southeast Asia presented the cheapest countries to travel in when I set off on my first round-the-world journey back in the 1990s. All these years later, the region has gotten a little richer, but it’s still a great value for short-term visitors and long-term residents.

Living in Thailand

nomad life in Thailand

I wrote about travel prices in Thailand after my last visit and we spent a month there, so I got a pretty good feel for everyday expenses. (That photo above is from our $50 per night hotel on Ko Lanta, by the way.) Sure, people grumble that it’s not as cheap as it used to be, but this is because the population is not as poor as it used to be either, which is a good thing. 

In the news department, Thailand didn’t just announce some pie-in-the-sky impractical digital nomad visa: they launched one that nomads are actually receiving when they apply for it. In theory it’s good for five years and you can stay for six months at a time. It’s called the Destination Thailand Visa (DTV).

Malaysia Life in a Nice Apartment

Malaysia can’t seem to decide if it really wants foreigners living there or not. They killed off the Malaysia My Second Home program years ago by raising the income/savings rate to millionaire level and are still arguing about how to revive it. They’ve been futzing around with a digital nomad visa proposal for years that hasn’t gotten any traction. 

It’s a head-scratcher since the country could easily siphon off some of the millions of dollars being spent by nomads that head to Bali, Thailand, or even Singapore since apartment rentals in Malaysia are some of the cheapest in the world for what you get. As in a huge place with multiple bedrooms in a secure building with a pool for $700 a month. 

Indonesia is Still a Tough Place to Live

Digital nomads love Bali, but it’s not liking them back very much. The island has so many problems it would take a whole book to cover them, from garbage to traffic to the depleted water tables. Then the government has made a tough place to live even tougher and encouraged its citizens to rat out behavior from foreigners that they find offensive. This can even include unmarried people living together. 

My first reaction is to say, “Go somewhere else in the country instead.” Because anywhere else you go will have lower prices on everything too. The problem is, you’re basically limited to a month at a time in the country since it’s so hard to get residency of any kind. That’s a lot of wasted flights out if you try to stick around.

One news development: the country started its first high-speed train in Java and has plans to add more. They also keep talking about a digital nomad visa, but nothing real seems to get off the ground. 

Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia

food in Vietnam

I’m throwing these three in together because they’re connected neighbors, but not much has changed in any of them in terms of prices and life for expats. Vietnam is still one of the world’s great bargains for renting an apartment and eating out, plus it’s cheap now to fly within the country and the region. 

Laos now has a high-speed train funded by the Chinese, so it’s easier to get between the population centers from north to south. Cambodia is one of the few countries that hasn’t gotten back to pre-pandemic tourist numbers, so Siem Reap is a great value for digital nomads for now. 

India and Nepal

These two neighbors share a border and a lot of similarities, with Nepal being on par with the least expensive parts of India unless it’s the middle of trekking season in the two biggest cities. One unfortunate thing these two countries have in common is horrible pollution. Neither has done much about the problem apart from solar hot water heaters on every roof and most of the world’s 10 most polluted cities are in India. 

If you can get to a place with clear air, the countries can be beautiful and prices are some of the lowest in the world once you get beyond Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore. See my past article here on the cost of living in India. That article is a few years old, but you got 72 rupees for a dollar when it came out and now you get 85, so that has offset any inflation. 

moving to Nepal

Also worth researching: Sri Lanka, Philippines, Kyrgyzstan.

Africa and a Few Last Notes

I seldom spend much time in Africa in this annual post because most foreigners living in Africa are there for a job rather than being location independent and there by choice. Internet can be iffy, nice apartments are seldom a bargain, and the vast distances make Africa tough to get in and out of for a reasonable price to do business or visit relatives.

There’s also this: a recent study listed the 10 vacation destinations around the world where the average couple spent the most. Seven of the ten were in Africa. The tourists who do come here are the ones with lots of money and the costs in countries set up for them reflect that. 

Egypt Anyone?

This is probably the most newsworthy inclusion in this whole article: due to Israel’s unrelenting attack on Palestinian civilians and the general unrest this has sparked in the region, tourism arrivals to Egypt have fallen off a cliff. Add the government downfall in Syria to the list and the neighbors like Jordan and Egypt are left shouting in the wind to come visit. 

It takes a special kind of fortitude to move to a place, even temporarily, in this kind of environment, but if you are willing, it’s a renter’s market in Egypt and you could probably even get a monthly rate at a 4-star hotel for half what you’re spending now where you live. With daily maid service.

In Numbeo’s latest list, Egypt is the cheapest country in the world that’s also a tourist attraction. 

Egypt apartment for $12 per night

Morocco for Expats

Since a whole lot of people can’t read a map, there’s some anecdotal evidence that Morocco has suffered from the war in the Middle East too, even though it’s way over on the other side of Africa. They’re Muslim and they speak Arabic, so clueless travelers think they must be somewhere close to where all those problems are.

Morocco is the country best set up for expats and digital nomads on the continent, with relatively good infrastructure, enough tourists that you can find someone who speaks your language, and plenty of short-term rental options. Prices have been stable for years. Numbeo says that living in Marrakech will cost you half what it does in Albuquerque, New Mexico (a place with a similar climate and some historic architecture in the region). Rents are 79% less. 

South Africa, a Short-term Deal

The country of South Africa is a lot like Brazil: there have been years when it was outrageously expensive and years where it was one of the world’s best values. We’re currently in the latter category thanks to the exchange rate situation, with the rand trading below 6 to the dollar at the low end of its historic range. So if you’ve been wanting to go spend a few months in the sun at the bottom of the continent, this is your time. 

Right now if you look on Airbnb, you can get a monthly studio apartment rental in Cape Town for under $800, a larger one for under $1,000. Naturally you could find a better deal on the ground or you could find a co-living space if you’re just going to stay for a month or two. 

Also worth researching: Tunisia, Tanzania, Madagascar

That’s a whole lot of info crammed into this post on the cheapest places to live in the world in 2025, but I still only skimmed the surface. To get a lot more depth, including the pros and cons of each destination, check out my detailed chapters in A Better Life for Half the Price. You can get this popular book about moving abroad on Amazon, Kobo, Audible, and more. See all the options here. 

 

Want to hear from me on a regular basis? I send out out a monthly Cheap Living Abroad Insiders report, the quick-read weekly Nomadico newsletter for working travelers, and a weekly e-mail from this blog with a new post reminder and some bits from the archives. Take your pick and we’ll stay in touch. 

Want to see last year’s version of this article? Check it out here

Dean

Wednesday 22nd of January 2025

You are way off on the income needed to get a retirement visa in Ecuador. It is about $1400 a month and has been for a few years now. I went back to Ecuador (Quito and Vilcabamba) after my 6 months ran out in Popayan Colombia. Due to a drought there was only electricity 12 hours a day, I was happy to leave. I have lived there before and it has lost it's appeal, plus living at that altitude sucks! I'm in Da Nang Vietnam now enjoying the cheap rent etc. It seems like you can stay here until further notice as there are services here that take you to the Laos border and back in one day to renew your 90 day visa with no end in site of how many runs you can do.

Tim Leffel

Saturday 25th of January 2025

Yes, you're right so I've edited that. A rather recent changed upped it to 3X the average local earnings, so now it's $1,380. That's still one of the lowest requirements in the world for legal residency. The previous one was crazy low. Ecuador still has what I think is the lowest requirement to get an investor visa: you have to put $46K into the country, so a modest apartment or house will get you there.

Julia Hubbel

Wednesday 22nd of January 2025

As always competent, capable, excellent information from one of my favorite writers. I own this book and am currently researching one of the options. Thanks for your hard work, Tim.

Madras book

Saturday 28th of December 2024

Wow, this is such a helpful list! It's great to see so many affordable places to live around the world, especially for those looking to stretch their budgets. I was surprised to see some of these cities on the list—they offer so much for so little. Definitely bookmarking this for future reference! Would love to see more about the lifestyle and job opportunities in these places too.

cadet

Thursday 26th of December 2024

Such a helpful list! It’s great to see affordable options for living in different parts of the world. This post makes it easier to explore new opportunities without breaking the bank. Thanks for sharing – definitely bookmarking for future reference!

Jenny

Thursday 26th of December 2024

Happy Holidays Tim!

Any input as far as "The Americas" coming in from El Salvador?? Even for just holiday visits?

Thanks In Advance

Jenny

Friday 27th of December 2024

@Tim Leffel,

Thank you!

Tim Leffel

Thursday 26th of December 2024

The only people I hear talking about El Salvador are crypto bros and surfers. It's the one country in Central America I still haven't been to because it doesn't seem to have all that much to offer and the prices are on par with Mexico, which has a lot better food and fun. It is safer now though that the leader put a huge percentage of the population into prison. I'm hoping to get down there at some point though and will write about it when I do.