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Move & retire

Philippines

Indefinite residence on a deposit, from forty. And the lowest safety score here.

4/4
ingredients confirmed
Every ingredient this page asks for has a figure and a source.
Living
~$1,400/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
Low on the index; the score is driven by long-running internal conflict and by crime rates rather than by conditions in the expatriate districts
ResidencyRecently changed
A deposit, and then indefinite
The Philippine Retirement Authority reformed the scheme in September 2025, moving the age floor to 40 and adjusting the deposit tiers. Any figure recorded before that should be rechecked.
Healthcare
Mandatory, cheap, and it pays a slice
Out-of-pocket spending is 44.4% 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~$1,400/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 (0.362 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 102 of 163, score 2.092. Converted by the Pathoff GPI formula (GPI in lib/scoring.ts)

Low on the index; the score is driven by long-running internal conflict and by crime rates rather than by conditions in the expatriate districts

Confidence
made by us from the source
ResidencyA deposit, and then indefinite

Pathoff outcome rubric (the Pathoff method, section 10-4), residency band "A route with conditions you can meet": The retiree visa is granted against a bank deposit — roughly US$10,000 to US$50,000 depending on age and pension status — and confers indefinite multiple-entry residence. High in the band for how little it asks. Short of the open band because it rests on a deposit that must stay deposited and does not lead to citizenship.

The Philippine Retirement Authority reformed the scheme in September 2025, moving the age floor to 40 and adjusting the deposit tiers. Any figure recorded before that should be rechecked.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
Changed recently — older guidance elsewhere is out of date
Last checked
2026-09
HealthcareMandatory, cheap, and it pays a slice

Pathoff healthcare rubric (the Pathoff method, section 13-2), band "You buy your own, and it is affordable": Membership of the national scheme is mandatory for residents and cheap — a flat annual sum for retiree-visa holders — but it pays case rates that cover part of a bill rather than the bill, so most people carry a private plan on top. Everyday private care is fast and inexpensive; the most complex cases are sometimes handled abroad, which is what this band describes.

Out-of-pocket spending is 44.4% 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

The retiree visa is one of the most accessible on earth: a bank deposit rather than an income stream, an age floor of forty, and indefinite multiple-entry residence at the end of it, in a country where living costs are among the lowest here and everything happens in English. Set against that: mandatory health cover that pays only part of a hospital bill, and a safety score near the bottom of the site.

How the process works

1

Place the deposit with a designated bank

The visa rests on the deposit remaining in place, not on an income stream.

⏱ 1–2 months
2

Enrol in the national health scheme

Mandatory under the universal health care law; retiree-visa holders pay a flat annual amount.

⏱ 1 month
3

Budget for a private plan on top

The public scheme pays case rates rather than the bill.

Timing not confirmed

Where people settle

Metro Manila
The best hospitals, the worst traffic
Cebu / Dumaguete
The established foreign-resident belt, cheaper and calmer
Davao
Reputedly the most orderly large city, and far from the north

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 Philippines by Bahnfrend, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.