Where to live in Namibia
We track 4 cities in Namibia: Rundu, Swakopmund, Walvis Bay and Windhoek. Average temperatures run from 17°C to 23°C. We estimate a couple needs €2,281 to €2,460 a month to live centrally. For foreigners, long-term residency is possible, with conditions.
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- Safety
- 58/100
- country-level estimate
- Healthcare
- 53/100
- country-level estimate
- Democracy
- 6.7/10
- estimated
Estimated from World Bank indicators and calibrated to the scales of our reference tables: safety from the country-level homicide rate per 100,000 people (VC.IHR.PSRC.P5, 2021) and Worldwide Governance Indicators Political Stability and Absence of Violence estimate (GOV_WGI_PV.EST, 2025), 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 Namibia. Figures for safety, healthcare, cost of living and political stability in Namibia 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 Namibia, so the quiz scores those factors conservatively and this page leaves them out.
The 4 cities we track
| City | Size | Setting | Avg temp | Rain a year | Est. cost a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rundu | smaller | inland | 23°C | 565 mm | €2,314 |
| Swakopmund | smaller | coastal | 17°C | 28 mm | €2,281 |
| Walvis Bay | smaller | coastal | 18°C | 21 mm | €2,307 |
| Windhoek | mid-sized | inland | 20°C | 382 mm | €2,460 |
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. Long-term residency is realistically reached through the investor/business route (owning shares in a Namibian company), the property-linked retirement route at President's Links Estate, or qualifying as a financially independent retiree with substantial assets; the digital nomad visa is only a six-month stay and does not lead to long-term status.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Namibia:
- Investment: about $237k (Investor residence route, NAD 3.95 million (10% stake in a Namibian company); converted at ~16.70 NAD/USD (May 2026). Retiree route alternatively requires net investment value of NAD 4 million.; as of June 2026)
For short visits, 55 of 198 passports can enter visa-free, 54 can get an e-visa or visa on arrival and 89 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).