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Move & retire

Slovenia

The safest country here, and no door marked "arriving with savings".

4/4
ingredients confirmed
Every ingredient this page asks for has a figure and a source.
Living
~$2,400/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
Very high
Fourth in the world, and the highest-ranked country on this site
Residency
Work, family or business, then five years
Healthcare
Good, once you are inside it
Out-of-pocket spending is 11.7% 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~$2,400/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 (0.625 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
SafetyVery high

Global Peace Index 2026: rank 4 of 163, score 1.369. Converted by the Pathoff GPI formula (GPI in lib/scoring.ts)

Fourth in the world, and the highest-ranked country on this site

Confidence
made by us from the source
ResidencyWork, family or business, then five years

Pathoff outcome rubric (the Pathoff method, section 10-4), residency band "Work, family or business only": No dedicated passive-income or retirement category appears among the listed purposes of residence; a permit on general grounds is discretionary. Near the top of the band because permanent residence follows five years of continuous lawful residence and, unlike Estonia, time spent studying counts towards it.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
No change known to us
Last checked
2026-09
HealthcareGood, once you are inside it

Pathoff healthcare rubric (the Pathoff method, section 13-2), band "You buy your own, and it is affordable": Compulsory health insurance follows employment or family membership, so a resident who is not working is outside it and takes voluntary or private cover. At the top of the band because that cover is affordable and serious treatment is done in the country rather than sought abroad.

Out-of-pocket spending is 11.7% 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

Fourth in the world for peacefulness, alps and Adriatic in the same small country, and costs a third below Austria next door. The catch is the same one most of Central Europe has: no residence category for someone living on income, health cover that does not follow residence automatically, and five years before permanent residence.

How the process works

1

Establish a purpose of residence

Employment, self-employment or family; there is no self-sufficiency category.

⏱ 2–4 months
2

Arrange health insurance from day one

It is a condition of the permit and does not follow residence automatically.

⏱ 1 week
3

Five years to permanent residence

Continuous lawful residence, including years spent studying.

⏱ 5 years

Where people settle

Ljubljana
Small, walkable, and where the English-speaking services are
Slovenian Istria
Coastal and mild; Italian border towns for the weekly shop
Bled / Bohinj
The postcard, and the winters that come with it

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 Slovenia by Andrew Milligan Sumo, licensed CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.