Where to live in Madagascar
We track 3 cities in Madagascar: Antananarivo, Antsirabe and Toamasina. Average temperatures run from 17°C to 24°C. We estimate a couple needs €2,156 to €2,278 a month to live centrally. 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).
- Safety
- 47/100
- country-level estimate
- Healthcare
- 40/100
- country-level estimate
- Democracy
- 4.6/10
- 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 Madagascar. Figures for safety, healthcare, cost of living and political stability in Madagascar 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 Madagascar, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antananarivo | large | inland | 18°C | 1,210 mm | €2,278 |
| Antsirabe | mid-sized | inland | 17°C | 1,331 mm | €2,156 |
| Toamasina | mid-sized | coastal | 24°C | 2,513 mm | €2,173 |
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. Realistic long-term routes are an expatriate-retiree transformable long-stay visa backed by proof of pension income, a discretionary investor/business visa processed through the EDBM, and employer-sponsored work or family-reunification permits, with the first resident card issued for one year and renewable toward 3-, 5-, and 10-year terms.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Madagascar:
- Income: about $582 a month (Madagascar expatriate-retiree transformable long-stay visa, EUR 500/mo minimum pension (converted at EUR/USD 1.1637); as of June 2026)
For short visits, 196 of 198 passports 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).