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Move & retire

Chile

A published income route, a working health system, and the Andes.

4/4
ingredients confirmed
Every ingredient this page asks for has a figure and a source.
Living
~$1,850/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
Second in South America behind Uruguay and fifty-second globally
Residency
Retirees and periodic income, then permanence
Healthcare
Public or private, and both work
Out-of-pocket spending is 39.1% of current health expenditure here (World Bank, 2024, 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.

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~$1,850/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 (0.493 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 52 of 163, score 1.826. Converted by the Pathoff GPI formula (GPI in lib/scoring.ts)

Second in South America behind Uruguay and fifty-second globally

Confidence
made by us from the source
ResidencyRetirees and periodic income, then permanence

Pathoff outcome rubric (the Pathoff method, section 10-4), residency band "A route with conditions you can meet": Temporary residence for retirees and holders of periodic income is a published category, dependants are included, and permanent residence follows a defined qualifying period. High in the band. Short of the open band because the 2021 migration law requires the application to be made from outside Chile and processing runs long.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
No change known to us
Last checked
2026-09
HealthcarePublic or private, and both work

Pathoff healthcare rubric (the Pathoff method, section 13-2), band "Covered, with a private top-up in practice": Residents with a tax number can join the public fund on a contribution or buy into the private system, and serious treatment is done in Santiago, which draws patients from across the region. Mid-band because the gap between the two systems is wide and most foreign residents end up paying for the private one.

Out-of-pocket spending is 39.1% of current health expenditure here (World Bank, 2024, 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.

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

What it is like here

Chile publishes a residence category for retirees and people living on periodic income, permanent residence follows a couple of years, and the health system genuinely works — residents can join the public fund on a contribution or buy private cover, and serious treatment is done in Santiago. It is the most expensive country in South America after Uruguay, and the 2021 migration law made almost everything apply-from-abroad.

How the process works

1

Apply from outside Chile

The 2021 law closed most routes to people already in the country on a tourist entry.

⏱ 4–10 months
2

Get a RUT, then choose a health system

The tax number comes first; the public fund and the private insurers both need it.

⏱ 1 month
3

Permanent residence after the qualifying period

Then citizenship, which Chile grants on a relatively short timetable.

⏱ 2–5 years

Where people settle

Santiago
The hospitals, the airport, and the smog in winter
Viña del Mar / Valparaíso
Coastal and milder, an hour and a half away
Pucón / Lake District
Volcanoes and lakes, and much thinner specialist medicine

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 Chile by Miguel hernandez, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.