Where to live in Iraq
We track 9 cities in Iraq, including Baghdad, Erbil and Mosul. Average temperatures run from 21°C to 28°C. We estimate a couple needs €2,275 to €2,424 a month to live centrally. Iraq sits in our low to medium tax tier. For foreigners, long-term residency is hard to obtain.
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- Tax tier
- Low to medium
- Moderate personal income tax
- Languages
- Arabic, Kurdish
- Limited English
- Safety
- 40/100
- country-level
- Healthcare
- 45/100
- country-level
- Internet
- ~20 Mbps
- median fixed broadband
The 9 cities we track
| City | Size | Setting | Avg temp | Rain a year | Est. cost a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Al Başrah al Qadīmah | large | near the coast | 28°C | 180 mm | €2,326 |
| Al Mawşil al Jadīdah | large | inland | 22°C | 433 mm | €2,328 |
| Baghdad | major | inland | 25°C | 161 mm | €2,424 |
| Basrah | large | near the coast | 28°C | 174 mm | €2,294 |
| Erbil | large | inland | 21°C | 533 mm | €2,309 |
| Karbala | large | inland | 25°C | 95 mm | €2,288 |
| Kirkuk | large | inland | 23°C | 347 mm | €2,275 |
| Mosul | large | inland | 22°C | 448 mm | €2,312 |
| Sadr City | large | inland | 25°C | 158 mm | €2,287 |
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
Iraq 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
Hard to obtain. Long-term residency for foreigners runs almost entirely through employer-sponsored work permits or marriage/family, with no federal investor or passive-income visa; the only self-funded capital route is the Kurdistan Region's new investor/property residency.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Iraq:
- Investment: about $50k (Kurdistan Region (KRI) investor/property route, minimum USD 50,000 residential unit purchase in an approved project for a renewable 1-5 year residence permit; no federal investment program exists; as of June 2026)
For short visits, 1 of 198 passports can enter visa-free, 195 can get an e-visa or visa on arrival and 2 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).