Barranquilla vs Cartagena for couples
Barranquilla and Cartagena are both in Colombia, about 100 km apart. Every figure below comes from the data behind our city pages: an estimated monthly cost for a couple, tax tier, annual climate, safety, healthcare, internet speed, language and residency rules.
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Side by side
Source: the datasets behind our city pages. Cost is our model estimate (a country-level cost index scaled for city size); tax tiers are assigned by hand from each country's top marginal income tax rate and overall tax reputation; temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages); rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals); safety and healthcare are our own country-level estimates; internet from the Ookla Speedtest Global Index; English from the EF English Proficiency Index; residency from our hand-reviewed residency dataset (not legal advice); short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset.
Factor by factor
Cost of living
Close on cost: we estimate about €2,160 a month for a couple living centrally in Barranquilla and €2,140 in Cartagena.
Taxes
Same country, same tax: Colombia is in our low to medium tax tier.
Climate
Both average 28°C over the year. Barranquilla is drier, with about 763 mm of rain a year against 951 mm in Cartagena (20% less).
Safety
Our safety score is country-level, so both cities get the same 45 out of 100.
Healthcare
Our healthcare score is country-level, so both cities get the same 65 out of 100.
Internet
Our broadband figure is country-level: about 130 Mbps median fixed download in both.
Language
Main languages in both: Spanish. English proficiency is rated the same in both: limited English.
Residency and visas
Same country, same rules: long-term residency in Colombia is rated comparatively open, with a self-funded route from about $4,932 a month in income.
Which one fits a couple
As two cities in Colombia, Barranquilla and Cartagena share every country-level figure, and no factor we score puts either clearly ahead. What sets them apart: Cartagena is wetter, with 951 mm of rain a year against 763 mm; Barranquilla is a large city (1 to 5 million people) and Cartagena a mid-sized one (250,000 to 1 million people). They are 100 km apart.
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