Where to live in Guinea-Bissau

We track 3 cities in Guinea-Bissau: Bafatá, Bissau and Gabú. Average temperatures run from 27°C to 28°C. We estimate a couple needs €2,085 to €2,292 a month to live centrally. For foreigners, long-term residency is possible, with conditions.

See how Bissau ranks for you

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Safety
48/100
country-level estimate
Healthcare
45/100
country-level estimate
Democracy
3.8/10
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 Guinea-Bissau. Figures for safety, healthcare, cost of living and political stability in Guinea-Bissau 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 Guinea-Bissau, 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
Bafatásmallernear the coast28°C1,388 mm€2,085
Bissaumid-sizedcoastal27°C1,604 mm€2,292
Gabúsmallernear the coast28°C1,245 mm€2,114

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. Residency is realistic mainly through employment with a local job offer, family/marriage ties, or case-by-case long-term residence after continuous legal stay; there is no investor or retirement route.

For short visits, 14 of 198 passports can enter visa-free and 184 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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