Where to live in Panama
We track 3 cities in Panama: Colón, David and Panama City. Each averages 26°C over the year. We estimate a couple needs €2,550 to €2,800 a month to live centrally. Panama sits in our low to medium tax tier. 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).
- Tax tier
- Low to medium
- Moderate personal income tax
- Languages
- Spanish
- Limited English
- Safety
- 60/100
- country-level
- Healthcare
- 62/100
- country-level
- Internet
- ~90 Mbps
- median fixed broadband
The 3 cities we track
| City | Size | Setting | Avg temp | Rain a year | Est. cost a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colón | smaller | coastal | 26°C | 2,382 mm | €2,550 |
| David | smaller | coastal | 26°C | 2,664 mm | €2,557 |
| Panama City | mid-sized | coastal | 26°C | 2,199 mm | €2,800 |
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
Panama 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. Several accessible routes: a low-bar retiree (Pensionado) visa for those with a lifetime pension, an investor (Qualified Investor) visa, and the Friendly Nations visa for many nationalities, most granting immediate or fast permanent residency.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Panama:
- Income: about $1,000 a month (Panama Pensionado (retiree) visa, lifetime pension of USD 1,000/mo for a single applicant; as of June 2026)
- Investment: about $300k (Panama Qualified Investor Visa, USD 300,000 real-estate purchase held 5 years (current minimum in mid-2026, before the scheduled rise to USD 500,000); as of June 2026)
For short visits, 116 of 198 passports can enter visa-free and 82 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).