Where to live in Colombia
We track 5 cities in Colombia: Barranquilla, Bogotá, Cali, Cartagena and Medellín. Average temperatures run from 13°C to 28°C. We estimate a couple needs €2,140 to €2,297 a month to live centrally. Colombia sits in our low to medium tax tier. For citizens from outside Mercosur and its associate states, long-term residency is comparatively open.
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).
- Tax tier
- Low to medium
- Moderate personal income tax
- Languages
- Spanish
- Limited English
- Safety
- 45/100
- country-level
- Healthcare
- 65/100
- country-level
- Internet
- ~130 Mbps
- median fixed broadband
The 5 cities we track
| City | Size | Setting | Avg temp | Rain a year | Est. cost a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barranquilla | large | coastal | 28°C | 763 mm | €2,160 |
| Bogotá | major | inland | 13°C | 1,303 mm | €2,297 |
| Cali | large | near the coast | 22°C | 1,719 mm | €2,207 |
| Cartagena | mid-sized | coastal | 28°C | 951 mm | €2,140 |
| Medellín | large | inland | 20°C | 2,481 mm | €2,195 |
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.
Taxes
Colombia sits in our low to medium tax tier: moderate personal income tax. The tier applies to every city here, and couples who cap tax below it will not see these cities in their results.
Source: OurNextCity tax tiers, assigned by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation, with no fixed rate cut-offs. Coarse by design; not tax advice.
Residency and visas
Comparatively open, for people from outside Mercosur and its associate states. Colombia offers several long-term routes for capable applicants, including passive-income (rentista) and pensioner visas, company or real-estate investment visas, and family or work-based options, all M-category visas that build toward permanent (R) residency.
Citizens of Mercosur and its associate states have freedom-of-movement or simplified residency rights here.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Colombia:
- Income: about $4,932 a month (Colombia Rentista visa: passive income of 10x the monthly minimum wage = COP 17,509,050/mo (the cheaper Pensionado route is 3x = COP 5,252,715/mo but requires an actual pension); converted at COP 3,550/USD.; as of June 2026)
- Investment: about $49k (Colombia Visa M Socio o Propietario (company investment): 100 SMMLV = COP 175,090,500 one-time, lower than the real-estate investor visa at 350 SMMLV = COP 612,816,750; converted at COP 3,550/USD.; as of June 2026)
For short visits, 101 of 198 passports can enter visa-free and 97 can get an e-visa or visa on arrival.
Source: OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed approximations researched against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. Not legal advice: check the official source before you apply. Short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT).