Where to live in Benin
We track 3 cities in Benin: Cotonou, Parakou and Porto-Novo. Each averages 27°C over the year. We estimate a couple needs €2,252 to €2,371 a month to live centrally. For foreigners, long-term residency is possible, with conditions.
12 questions, about 4 minutes, no account needed. Taking the quiz is free, and so is seeing your #1 city. Full results for both of you are a one-time US$12 (€12 in Europe).
- Safety
- 46/100
- country-level estimate
- Healthcare
- 40/100
- country-level estimate
- Democracy
- 5.3/10
- estimated
Estimated from World Bank indicators and calibrated to the scales of our reference tables: safety from the Worldwide Governance Indicators Political Stability and Absence of Violence estimate (GOV_WGI_PV.EST, 2025) and life expectancy at birth (SP.DYN.LE00.IN, 2024), healthcare from the life expectancy at birth (SP.DYN.LE00.IN, 2024) and current health spending per person in US dollars (SH.XPD.CHEX.PC.CD, 2023), cost of living from the price level of GDP relative to the United States, from GDP per person in US dollars and at purchasing power parity (NY.GDP.PCAP.CD/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD, 2025) and democracy score from the Worldwide Governance Indicators Voice and Accountability estimate (GOV_WGI_VA.EST, 2025). Source: The World Bank (World Development Indicators, Worldwide Governance Indicators), CC BY 4.0.
Limited data for Benin. Figures for safety, healthcare, cost of living and political stability in Benin are country-level estimates from World Bank indicators, each named with its year. We have no tax, English, social openness or internet speed figures for Benin, so the quiz scores those factors conservatively and this page leaves them out.
The 3 cities we track
| City | Size | Setting | Avg temp | Rain a year | Est. cost a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cotonou | large | coastal | 27°C | 1,104 mm | €2,371 |
| Parakou | mid-sized | inland | 27°C | 1,064 mm | €2,252 |
| Porto-Novo | mid-sized | coastal | 27°C | 1,148 mm | €2,258 |
Source: City size from GeoNames, temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages), rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals), coast distance from Natural Earth. Cost is our model estimate for a couple living centrally, from the World Bank price level.
Residency and visas
Possible, with conditions. Benin grants temporary (1-year), ordinary (3-year) and privileged (10-year) resident cards mainly to foreigners with a job, business, or study tie in-country; there is no passive-income or golden-visa route, and real-estate purchase does not qualify.
For short visits, 57 of 198 passports can enter visa-free and 141 can get an e-visa or visa on arrival.
Source: OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed approximations researched against published immigration rules. Not legal advice: check the official source before you apply. Short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT).