Where to live in Zambia
We track 3 cities in Zambia: Kitwe, Lusaka and Ndola. Each averages 21°C over the year. We estimate a couple needs €2,206 to €2,299 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
- 53/100
- country-level estimate
- Healthcare
- 46/100
- country-level estimate
- Democracy
- 5.3/10
- 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 Zambia. Figures for safety, healthcare, cost of living and political stability in Zambia 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 Zambia, so the quiz scores those factors conservatively and this page leaves them out.
The 3 cities we track
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. Realistic long-term residency comes through an active investor permit that converts to permanent residence after three years, an employment permit, or a retirement/sufficient-means route, but there is no passive golden visa and processing is slow.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Zambia:
- Investment: about $150k (Zambia Investor's Permit, US$150,000 to invest in an existing Zambian company (US$250,000 to establish a new business); converts to permanent residence after 3 years; as of June 2026)
For short visits, 83 of 198 passports can enter visa-free and 115 can get an e-visa or visa on arrival.
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).