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Move & retire

Panama

A thousand a month in pension buys permanent residence, outright.

4/4
ingredients confirmed
Every ingredient this page asks for has a figure and a source.
Living
~$1,950/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
Eighty-first globally and fifth in Central America and the Caribbean
ResidencyRecently changed
Permanent residence on a pension, at once
Healthcare
Private, dollar-priced, and done here
Out-of-pocket spending is 40.5% 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~$1,950/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 (0.511 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 81 of 163, score 1.976. Converted by the Pathoff GPI formula (GPI in lib/scoring.ts)

Eighty-first globally and fifth in Central America and the Caribbean

Confidence
made by us from the source
ResidencyPermanent residence on a pension, at once

Pathoff outcome rubric (the Pathoff method, section 10-4), residency band "Settlement is open": The pensionado grants permanent residence to an applicant with a guaranteed lifetime pension of $1,000 a month — $750 with property over $100,000 — with no minimum age and dependants included. At the foot of the band because the income must be a lifetime pension and expressly not investment income or retirement-account withdrawals, and because the Friendly Nations alternative was restricted in 2021 and tightened again on 10 January 2025.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
Changed recently — older guidance elsewhere is out of date
Last checked
2026-09
HealthcarePrivate, dollar-priced, and done here

Pathoff healthcare rubric (the Pathoff method, section 13-2), band "You buy your own, and it is affordable": The social security system is built around people employed in Panama, so a foreign resident buys private cover, which is affordable and quick. At the very top of the band because Panama City’s private hospitals handle serious treatment domestically and draw patients from the region — what keeps it out of the band above is access to the public system, not the standard of the care.

Out-of-pocket spending is 40.5% 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

Panama’s pensionado is one of the few residence routes anywhere that hands a newcomer permanent residence immediately, on a lifetime pension of $1,000 a month and with no minimum age, in a dollarised country with good private hospitals and flights everywhere. Read the conditions rather than the headline: it has to be a lifetime pension, not savings or investment income, and the other main route has been tightened twice since 2021.

How the process works

1

Document the pension, not the savings

It must be a guaranteed lifetime pension; investment income and account withdrawals do not qualify.

⏱ 1–3 months
2

File through Panamanian counsel

Immigration applications are made by a lawyer here, and the fee is part of the budget.

⏱ 3–8 months
3

Buy private cover

The public system is for people employed here; private care is the practical route.

⏱ 1–2 weeks

Where people settle

Boquete / Volcán
Highland, cool, and the best-known retiree towns in Latin America
Panama City
The hospitals, the flights, and the humidity
Coronado / Pedasí
Pacific beaches within reach of the capital

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 Panama by Dr. Thomas Liptak, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.