Monaco vs San Marino for couples
Monaco and San Marino are about 404 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. Monaco leads on tax, safety, healthcare, internet speed, getting by in English and residency rules; San Marino on cost.
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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
San Marino is cheaper: we estimate about €3,040 a month for a couple living centrally, against €4,088 in Monaco. That is €1,048 a month, or 26%, less.
Taxes
Monaco has the lighter tax load: Monaco is in our zero or very low tax tier, San Marino in our low to medium tax tier.
Climate
Monaco is 5°C warmer on average over the year: 17°C against 12°C in San Marino. Rainfall is similar: about 814 mm a year in Monaco and 860 mm in San Marino.
Safety
Monaco is the safer pick: Monaco scores 90 out of 100 on safety, 5 points above San Marino (85).
Healthcare
Monaco has the stronger healthcare: Monaco scores 85 out of 100 on healthcare, 5 points above San Marino (80).
Internet
Monaco has faster home internet: about 200 Mbps median fixed download against about 90 Mbps in San Marino.
Language
Main languages: French in Monaco; Italian in San Marino. English goes further in Monaco (good English) than in San Marino (limited English).
Residency and visas
Long-term residency is easier to obtain in Monaco (comparatively open) than in San Marino (hard to obtain). San Marino has a self-funded route from about $12k a month in income; we track no income-based route for Monaco. For short visits, 93 of 198 passports can enter Monaco visa-free and 93 can enter San Marino.
Which one fits a couple
If one of you puts tax (zero or very low tax against low to medium tax), safety (90 against 85 out of 100), healthcare (85 against 80 out of 100), internet speed (200 Mbps against 90 Mbps), getting by in English (good English against limited English) and residency rules (comparatively open against hard to obtain) first, Monaco comes out ahead. If the other cares more about cost (€3,040 against €4,088 a month), San Marino does.
Climate can pull the two of you apart too: a partner who wants warmth leans toward Monaco (17°C on average), while one who minds the heat leans toward San Marino (12°C).
OurNextCity has each partner answer 12 questions privately, then ranks Monaco, San Marino and 913 other cities for both of you at once.