Where to live in Indonesia
We track 15 cities in Indonesia, including Jakarta, Surabaya and Yogyakarta. Average temperatures run from 23°C to 28°C. We estimate a couple needs €2,117 to €2,384 a month to live centrally. Indonesia sits in our low to medium tax tier. For foreigners, 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
- Indonesian
- Limited English
- Safety
- 58/100
- country-level
- Healthcare
- 55/100
- country-level
- Internet
- ~30 Mbps
- median fixed broadband
The 15 cities we track
| City | Size | Setting | Avg temp | Rain a year | Est. cost a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bandar Lampung | large | coastal | 26°C | 2,135 mm | €2,200 |
| Bandung | large | near the coast | 23°C | 2,266 mm | €2,253 |
| Batam | large | coastal | 27°C | 2,641 mm | €2,199 |
| Bogor | large | near the coast | 26°C | 3,594 mm | €2,197 |
| Denpasar | mid-sized | coastal | 26°C | 1,685 mm | €2,165 |
| Jakarta | major | coastal | 27°C | 2,051 mm | €2,384 |
| Jayapura | mid-sized | coastal | 27°C | 2,461 mm | €2,123 |
| Makassar | large | coastal | 27°C | 2,764 mm | €2,214 |
| Medan | large | coastal | 26°C | 2,568 mm | €2,253 |
| Padang | mid-sized | coastal | 26°C | 4,446 mm | €2,182 |
| Palembang | large | coastal | 26°C | 2,651 mm | €2,225 |
| Pekanbaru | large | near the coast | 26°C | 3,048 mm | €2,194 |
| Semarang | large | coastal | 27°C | 2,187 mm | €2,225 |
| Surabaya | large | coastal | 28°C | 1,661 mm | €2,265 |
| Yogyakarta | mid-sized | coastal | 26°C | 2,167 mm | €2,117 |
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
Indonesia 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. Realistic long-term routes are the over-55 Retirement KITAS on proof of pension income, the Second Home Visa backed by a state-owned-bank deposit or property, the investor Golden Visa, and a remote-worker KITAS for the foreign-employed.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Indonesia:
- Income: about $1,500 a month (Indonesia Retirement KITAS (E33F, age 55+), commonly enforced at USD 18,000/yr = USD 1,500/mo; as of June 2026)
- Investment: about $112k (Second Home Visa (E33) state-bank deposit, IDR 2,000,000,000 (~USD 112,000 at 17,854 IDR/USD, Jun 2026); cheaper than the Golden Visa's USD 350,000 fund route; as of June 2026)
For short visits, 13 of 198 passports can enter visa-free and 185 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).