Where to live in Palau
We track one city in Palau: Ngerulmud. It averages 27°C over the year. We estimate a couple needs €3,091 a month to live centrally. For foreigners, long-term residency is possible, with conditions.
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
- 67/100
- country-level estimate
- Healthcare
- 61/100
- country-level estimate
- Democracy
- 8.0/10
- 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 Palau. Figures for safety, healthcare, cost of living and political stability in Palau 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 Palau, so the quiz scores those factors conservatively and this page leaves them out.
The city we track
| City | Size | Setting | Avg temp | Rain a year | Est. cost a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ngerulmud | smaller | coastal | 27°C | 3,883 mm | €3,091 |
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 residence is realistic mainly via the 10-year Elite Resident Visa (buy/lease a qualifying dwelling) or the business Investor Visa tied to a Foreign Investment Approval Certificate; a 2-year renewable Resident Visa needs proof of income but no fixed figure, and there is no naturalization or permanent residence path without Palauan ancestry.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Palau:
- Investment: about $250k (Palau Elite Resident Visa, purchase or lease a dwelling worth at least USD 250,000 paid in cash upfront (plus a USD 20,000 non-refundable fee), grants a renewable 10-year residence; as of June 2026)
For short visits, 33 of 198 passports can enter visa-free, 163 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).