pathoff← All countries for early study

Early study

Armenia

Georgia’s twin on price, and the quota system just arrived.

5/5
ingredients confirmed
Every ingredient this page asks for has a figure and a source.
Tuition
~$26k/yr
That flat rate across all grades is unusual and it is what the school publishes. Armenian state schools are free and teach in Armenian.
Living
~$1,800/mo
Family of three, all in, excluding fees. Compared at country level, so capital cities and large metros run higher. The price level behind it prices the basket residents buy, and a foreign renter cannot reach the cheap end of local housing — poorer countries may still sit too low here.
Education
Mid
Guardian visaRecently changed
A parent founds a company, and now joins a queue
Safety
Mid
Fifty-first globally and improved on the previous edition, which the index attributes to the regional normalisation now under way

More is being checked.

Where these figures came from

One row per ingredient. Open any of them for the source, how far we trust it, and when we last checked.

Tuition~$26k/yr

QSI International School of Yerevan, via the US Department of State’s fact sheet carrying the school’s own figures, published a flat 2023-24 tuition of $26,000 for the whole K–12 range, plus a $1,600 capital fund fee, a $300 registration fee and a $200 activity fee — $27,800 in total. Pre-K is $6,500.

That flat rate across all grades is unusual and it is what the school publishes. Armenian state schools are free and teach in Armenian.

Confidence
printed in the source
Living~$1,800/mo

Pathoff judgement directed by evidence, not computed from it: the country’s position comes from the World Bank household consumption price level for 2024 (0.401 of the United States, CC BY 4.0 — the ICP benchmark carried forward annually by the World Bank’s own method); the US reference budget is ours. See the Pathoff method, section 12.

Family of three, all in, excluding fees. Compared at country level, so capital cities and large metros run higher. The price level behind it prices the basket residents buy, and a foreign renter cannot reach the cheap end of local housing — poorer countries may still sit too low here.

Confidence
made by us from the source
EducationMid

Pathoff judgement, no rubric yet: placed against the other countries here from general knowledge of the international-school sector. Under review — see the Pathoff method, section 9-3.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Guardian visaA parent founds a company, and now joins a queue

Pathoff outcome rubric (the Pathoff method, section 10-1), early outcome band "Partial or conditional access": No parental status, but temporary residence on business grounds has long been easy here and is a route a parent can hold and renew. At the foot of the band because the August 2026 law puts annual quotas on each residence category and ties permits to physical presence and economic activity, and the quota levels are not yet known.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
Changed recently — older guidance elsewhere is out of date
Last checked
2026-09
SafetyMid

Global Peace Index 2026: rank 51 of 163, score 1.825. Converted by the Pathoff GPI formula (GPI in lib/scoring.ts)

Fifty-first globally and improved on the previous edition, which the index attributes to the regional normalisation now under way

Confidence
made by us from the source

What it is like here

Armenia costs almost exactly what Georgia costs — the two price levels have moved in lockstep for seven years — and it ranks higher for peacefulness. Yerevan is sunny, walkable and unusually cheap for a European-feeling capital. The thing to read before planning around it is the immigration law that came into force in August 2026, which puts annual quotas on residence permits by category.

How the process works

1

Enter visa-free and look around

Most nationalities get 180 days a year, which is time to decide before committing.

⏱ 1 day
2

A parent establishes a basis, then applies inside the quota

Business, employment or family; the quota system began in August 2026.

⏱ 2–5 months

Where families cluster

Yerevan (Kentron, Arabkir)
The international school, the clinics and the whole foreign community
Dilijan
Forested and cool, with a well-known international boarding school

Open any ingredient above to see where its figure came from, how far we trust it and when we last checked. Nothing here is a substitute for the official source. Last reviewed 2026-09-04.

Photograph of Armenia by Սէրուժ Ուրիշեան (Serouj Ourishian), licensed CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.