Where to live in the Dominican Republic
We track 4 cities in the Dominican Republic: Punta Cana, San Pedro de Macorís, Santiago de los Caballeros and Santo Domingo. Average temperatures run from 25°C to 26°C. We estimate a couple needs €2,278 to €2,579 a month to live centrally. For foreigners, long-term residency is comparatively open.
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- Safety
- 57/100
- country-level estimate
- Healthcare
- 59/100
- country-level estimate
- Democracy
- 6.6/10
- estimated
Estimated from World Bank indicators and calibrated to the scales of our reference tables: safety from the country-level homicide rate per 100,000 people (VC.IHR.PSRC.P5, 2023) and Worldwide Governance Indicators Political Stability and Absence of Violence estimate (GOV_WGI_PV.EST, 2025), 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 Dominican Republic. Figures for safety, healthcare, cost of living and political stability in the Dominican Republic 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 the Dominican Republic, so the quiz scores those factors conservatively and this page leaves them out.
The 4 cities we track
| City | Size | Setting | Avg temp | Rain a year | Est. cost a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Punta Cana | smaller | coastal | 26°C | 1,201 mm | €2,278 |
| San Pedro de Macorís | smaller | coastal | 26°C | 1,008 mm | €2,349 |
| Santiago de los Caballeros | large | coastal | 25°C | 1,095 mm | €2,496 |
| Santo Domingo | large | coastal | 26°C | 1,558 mm | €2,579 |
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
Comparatively open. The Dominican Republic offers straightforward fast-track permanent-residency routes for retirees with a foreign pension, applicants with stable foreign passive income, and investors.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for the Dominican Republic:
- Income: about $1,500 a month (Dominican Republic pensionado (retiree) residency, US$1,500/mo foreign pension (+US$250/dependent); non-pensioner applicants use the rentista route at US$2,000/mo. Thresholds are denominated directly in USD by Migración, so no currency conversion applies.; as of June 2026)
- Investment: about $200k (Dominican Republic investor residency, US$200,000 minimum in a Dominican company, certified project, or real estate (USD-denominated by Migración).; as of June 2026)
For short visits, 108 of 198 passports can enter visa-free and 90 need a visa in advance.
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).