Where to live in Guatemala
We track 3 cities in Guatemala: Cobán, Guatemala City and Quetzaltenango. Average temperatures run from 14°C to 18°C. We estimate a couple needs €2,463 to €2,691 a month to live centrally. For foreigners, long-term residency is comparatively open.
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- Safety
- 45/100
- country-level estimate
- Healthcare
- 57/100
- 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 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 Guatemala. Figures for safety, healthcare, cost of living and political stability in Guatemala 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 Guatemala, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cobán | smaller | inland | 18°C | 2,394 mm | €2,477 |
| Guatemala City | large | near the coast | 18°C | 1,311 mm | €2,691 |
| Quetzaltenango | smaller | near the coast | 14°C | 1,249 mm | €2,463 |
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 main realistic route is the rentista/pensionado sufficient-means residency, which needs no Guatemalan guarantor and leads directly to permanent residency, with an investor route and a new digital-nomad route as alternatives.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Guatemala:
- Income: about $1,250 a month (Guatemala rentista/pensionado residency, USD 1,250/mo for a single applicant (+USD 300/mo per dependent) proven from foreign-source income; figures quoted natively in USD; as of June 2026)
- Investment: about $100k (Guatemala investor residency (residente inversionista), ~USD 100,000 in real estate, a Guatemalan bank deposit, or business equity; some sources cite USD 50,000 for business equity. Figures quoted natively in USD; as of June 2026)
For short visits, 86 of 198 passports can enter visa-free and 112 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).