Where to live in Mexico
We track 20 cities in Mexico, including Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. Average temperatures run from 17°C to 27°C. We estimate a couple needs €2,180 to €2,624 a month to live centrally. Mexico sits in our low to medium tax tier. For foreigners, long-term residency is comparatively open.
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- Tax tier
- Low to medium
- Moderate personal income tax
- Languages
- Spanish
- Limited English
- Safety
- 45/100
- country-level
- Healthcare
- 62/100
- country-level
- Internet
- ~80 Mbps
- median fixed broadband
The 20 cities we track
| City | Size | Setting | Avg temp | Rain a year | Est. cost a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acapulco de Juárez | mid-sized | coastal | 27°C | 1,234 mm | €2,364 |
| Cabo San Lucas | smaller | coastal | 25°C | 292 mm | €2,266 |
| Cancún | mid-sized | coastal | 26°C | 1,135 mm | €2,389 |
| Chihuahua | mid-sized | inland | 20°C | 325 mm | €2,392 |
| Ciudad Juárez | large | inland | 19°C | 174 mm | €2,433 |
| Culiacán | mid-sized | coastal | 25°C | 632 mm | €2,381 |
| Guadalajara | large | inland | 21°C | 957 mm | €2,486 |
| Guanajuato | smaller | inland | 19°C | 762 mm | €2,180 |
| León de los Aldama | large | inland | 20°C | 678 mm | €2,437 |
| Mérida | large | coastal | 27°C | 818 mm | €2,414 |
| Mexicali | large | near the coast | 25°C | 58 mm | €2,402 |
| Mexico City | major | inland | 17°C | 773 mm | €2,624 |
| Monterrey | large | inland | 22°C | 627 mm | €2,409 |
| Oaxaca | mid-sized | near the coast | 20°C | 692 mm | €2,285 |
| Playa del Carmen | smaller | coastal | 26°C | 1,210 mm | €2,241 |
| Puebla | large | inland | 17°C | 917 mm | €2,443 |
| Puerto Vallarta | smaller | coastal | 25°C | 1,185 mm | €2,275 |
| San Miguel de Allende | smaller | inland | 18°C | 604 mm | €2,254 |
| Santiago de Querétaro | large | inland | 19°C | 642 mm | €2,438 |
| Tijuana | large | coastal | 17°C | 233 mm | €2,453 |
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
Mexico 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. Mexico offers a well-trodden, sponsor-free economic-solvency route to renewable temporary residency (convertible to permanent after four years), plus higher-threshold direct permanent residency and family/marriage routes, with no points system or quota.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Mexico:
- Income: about $4,600 a month (Mexico Temporary Resident Visa economic-solvency (sufficient-means) route, MXN 79,771/mo (680x daily UMA of 117.31 pesos); converted at 17.35 MXN/USD; as of June 2026)
- Investment: about $78k (Mexico Temporary Resident Visa savings/investment-balance route, MXN 1,344,373 held liquid balance over 12 months (11,460x daily UMA); converted at 17.35 MXN/USD; as of June 2026)
For short visits, 63 of 198 passports can enter visa-free, 3 can get an e-visa or visa on arrival and 132 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).