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Move & retire

Nepal

You can live here for very little. You cannot settle here at all.

4/4
ingredients confirmed
Every ingredient this page asks for has a figure and a source.
Living
~$1,000/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
Low
A hundred-and-eleventh of 163, and the largest deterioration recorded in South Asia this edition
Residency
Renewed annually, and it leads nowhere
Healthcare
Cheap, quick, and it stops early
Out-of-pocket spending is 59.4% 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.

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~$1,000/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 (0.264 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
SafetyLow

Global Peace Index 2026: rank 111 of 163, score 2.143. Converted by the Pathoff GPI formula (GPI in lib/scoring.ts)

A hundred-and-eleventh of 163, and the largest deterioration recorded in South Asia this edition

Confidence
made by us from the source
ResidencyRenewed annually, and it leads nowhere

Pathoff outcome rubric (the Pathoff method, section 10-4), residency band "Hard, and partly out of your hands": Non-tourist visas for work, business and study exist and are issued, but each is tied to an activity and renewed a year at a time, no income or retirement category is published, and the residential visa is reserved for investors at a level almost nobody reaches. At the top of the band because the routes are real; in it because none of them accumulates into anything.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
No change known to us
Last checked
2026-09
HealthcareCheap, quick, and it stops early

Pathoff healthcare rubric (the Pathoff method, section 13-2), band "You buy your own, and it is affordable": There is no public system a foreign resident can rely on; private clinics and hospitals in Kathmandu are inexpensive and same-day for ordinary care. At the foot of the band because the ceiling is low even by the band’s standards — serious treatment means Delhi or Bangkok — and because Kathmandu’s winter air is itself a health problem.

Out-of-pocket spending is 59.4% 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.

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

What it is like here

Nepal costs about a quarter of the United States, has the mountains, and welcomes visitors generously — up to 150 days a year on a tourist visa. It does not have a way to stay: there is no retirement or income route, residence rests on an activity renewed each year, permanent residence is reserved for very large investors, and serious illness means a flight to Delhi or Bangkok.

How the process works

1

Understand that the tourist visa is the generous part

Up to 150 days a year on arrival, and it is not residence and does not lead to it.

⏱ 1 day
2

Find an activity that carries a non-tourist visa

Employment, a registered business or study. Savings alone open nothing.

⏱ 3–8 months
3

Insure for evacuation

The realistic plan for anything serious is a flight out, so insure for the flight.

⏱ 1 week

Where people settle

Kathmandu
The hospitals and the airport, and the winter smog
Pokhara
Lakes, clean air, and very little specialist medicine
Chitwan / Terai
Warm, flat, cheapest of all, and hot in summer

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 Nepal by Bernard Gagnon, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.