Where to live in Djibouti

We track 3 cities in Djibouti: Ali Sabih, Dikhil and Djibouti. Average temperatures run from 26°C to 30°C. We estimate a couple needs €2,366 to €2,663 a month to live centrally. For foreigners, long-term residency is possible, with conditions.

See how Djibouti ranks for you

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Safety
50/100
country-level estimate
Healthcare
46/100
country-level estimate
Democracy
3.3/10
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 Djibouti. Figures for safety, healthcare, cost of living and political stability in Djibouti 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 Djibouti, so the quiz scores those factors conservatively and this page leaves them out.

The 3 cities we track

CitySizeSettingAvg tempRain a yearEst. cost a month
Ali Sabihsmallercoastal26°C161 mm€2,409
Dikhilsmallernear the coast29°C128 mm€2,366
Djiboutimid-sizedcoastal30°C113 mm€2,663

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. Long-term residency is available mainly through employer-sponsored work permits or business/investor permits tied to setting up a local company, with permanent residence only after roughly 10 years of legal stay; there is no passive-income or golden-visa route.

For short visits, 1 of 198 passports can enter visa-free and 197 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).

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