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Move & retire

Tunisia

Mediterranean living at a third of Mediterranean prices, on a card renewed by hand.

4/4
ingredients confirmed
Every ingredient this page asks for has a figure and a source.
Living
~$1,150/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
Seventy-seventh globally, and the single largest improvement recorded in this edition — every indicator either improved or held
Residency
A card, renewed, at the office’s discretion
Healthcare
Private care so good that people fly in for it
Out-of-pocket spending is 37.9% 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~$1,150/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 (0.308 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 77 of 163, score 1.947. Converted by the Pathoff GPI formula (GPI in lib/scoring.ts)

Seventy-seventh globally, and the single largest improvement recorded in this edition — every indicator either improved or held

Confidence
made by us from the source
ResidencyA card, renewed, at the office’s discretion

Pathoff outcome rubric (the Pathoff method, section 10-4), residency band "Work, family or business only": Residence rests on a carte de séjour granted for work, family, study or business, renewed annually and convertible to a longer card after five years. Mid-band because those routes function and lead somewhere, but no category exists for someone arriving on income alone and nothing about the assessment is published.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
No change known to us
Last checked
2026-09
HealthcarePrivate care so good that people fly in for it

Pathoff healthcare rubric (the Pathoff method, section 13-2), band "You buy your own, and it is affordable": The contributory public scheme is built around people employed here, so a foreign resident uses the private sector — which is inexpensive, quick, and strong enough that Tunisia is a medical destination for Libya, sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Europe. At the very top of the band, and the reason it is not in the band above is access to the public system rather than the quality of the care: serious treatment is done here, not abroad.

Out-of-pocket spending is 37.9% 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

Tunisia gives you the Mediterranean — the sea, the climate, the food, a two-hour flight to Rome or Paris — for about a third of what southern Europe costs, and its health system is good enough that people fly in for it. What it does not give you is a written route: there is no retirement or income visa, and residence rests on a card the authorities grant, renew and can decline.

How the process works

1

Enter, then apply for the carte de séjour

Applied for after arrival at the local police district, on a stated purpose.

⏱ 2–6 months
2

Budget for private cover

The public scheme is contributory; foreign residents buy their own and it is cheap.

⏱ 1–2 weeks
3

Learn enough French to deal with offices

Administration runs in French and Arabic, and English will not carry you.

Timing not confirmed

Where people settle

La Marsa / Gammarth
The established foreign-resident belt north of Tunis
Hammamet / Sousse
Cheaper, warmer, and busy in summer
Djerba
Mild all winter, and a long way from a specialist

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 Tunisia by Habib M'henni, licensed CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.