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Move & retire

Botswana

The mainland’s safest country, with no door for someone arriving on savings.

4/4
ingredients confirmed
Every ingredient this page asks for has a figure and a source.
Living
~$1,500/mo
Couple, all in. 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.
Safety
Mid
Fiftieth globally and the highest-ranked country on the African mainland in this edition
Residency
Work, invest, study or marry — and nothing else
Healthcare
A good public system you are not really in
Out-of-pocket spending is 4.3% of current health expenditure here (World Bank, 2023, CC BY 4.0). Read it with care: the measure counts only what insured people pay — not premiums, and not the uninsured — which is why the United States comes out at 10.9%, ahead of most countries on this site. The very low figure reflects a public system that is free at the point of use for citizens, and says nothing about what a foreign resident faces.

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.

Living~$1,500/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 (0.392 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.

Couple, all in. 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
SafetyMid

Global Peace Index 2026: rank 50 of 163, score 1.823. Converted by the Pathoff GPI formula (GPI in lib/scoring.ts)

Fiftieth globally and the highest-ranked country on the African mainland in this edition

Confidence
made by us from the source
ResidencyWork, invest, study or marry — and nothing else

Pathoff outcome rubric (the Pathoff method, section 10-4), residency band "Work, family or business only": The published categories are employment, investment, study and dependency, most issued for one to two years and renewable, and they do lead somewhere. At the foot of the band because no route exists for someone arriving with means and no employer, and because work permits run through the same localisation test.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
No change known to us
Last checked
2026-09
HealthcareA good public system you are not really in

Pathoff healthcare rubric (the Pathoff method, section 13-2), band "You buy your own, and it is affordable": Botswana funds one of the better public health systems in the region and built it around its own citizens; a foreign resident buys into a private medical aid scheme, which is affordable and quick in Gaborone. Mid-band because complex treatment is routinely referred to South Africa, which is what this band describes.

Out-of-pocket spending is 4.3% of current health expenditure here (World Bank, 2023, CC BY 4.0). Read it with care: the measure counts only what insured people pay — not premiums, and not the uninsured — which is why the United States comes out at 10.9%, ahead of most countries on this site. The very low figure reflects a public system that is free at the point of use for citizens, and says nothing about what a foreign resident faces.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
No change known to us
Last checked
2026-09

What it is like here

Botswana is stable in a way its neighbours are not — fifty countries from the top of the peace index, low corruption, a currency that has held for decades — and it costs less than 40% of the United States. It also has no retirement visa, no income visa and no investor-lite route. If you are not working, investing or married in, there is nothing to apply for.

How the process works

1

Identify a category that exists

Employment, investment, study or dependency. Savings alone are not one of them.

⏱ 4–12 months
2

Join a private medical aid scheme

The public system is built for citizens.

⏱ 1 month
3

Budget for the flights

Specialist care usually means Johannesburg, an hour away.

Timing not confirmed

Where people settle

Gaborone
The hospitals, the jobs, and the border with South Africa
Maun
The Okavango, the tourism economy, and very thin medicine
Kasane
Four countries meet here; the Chobe is on the doorstep

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 Botswana by CNJerem, licensed CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.