Photo: Barry haynes · CC BY SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Barbados
English, Bajan Creole · BBD · Atlantic Standard Time · Updated
How it scores for living there
- 110%Cost of livingRated 1 of 5 for living there, bad
- 28.5%Income taxRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- NoneCapital gainsRated 5 of 5 for living there, ideal
- 64MbpsInternetRated 5 of 5 for living there, ideal
- 2.96Doctors /1,000Rated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 11PM2.5 ug/m3Rated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 7.4Homicide /100kRated 2 of 5 for living there, poor
- 76.3Life expectancyRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 70%People onlineRated 2 of 5 for living there, poor
- 68Corruption indexRated 4 of 5 for living there, good
- 12of 12Mild monthsRated 5 of 5 for living there, ideal
Facts, not judgements
- UTC-4Time zone
- BBDCurrency
- English+1Language
- A, BPower plug
- 966kVisitors in 2019
Colour says whether a figure is good for someone moving in, not whether it is high: cheap is green and expensive is red. Every coloured box carries the reason for its colour, the bar under it repeats the score as a width, and boxes with no data are not drawn.
Nomads in Barbados
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Who can help you in Barbados
Vetted partners for the move: immigration and tax lawyers, relocation services, banking and eSIM, guides and local experts. One Gold partner and up to three standard listings per country.
Climate and cost by city
Average monthly temperature and rainfall from Open-Meteo ERA5 (2019-2023 mean, CC BY 4.0). Sea surface temperature from Open-Meteo Marine. Price level from the World Bank ICP survey, same-year pairing, omitted where the survey does not cover the country.
Cost of living and lifestyle
Day to day, Barbados costs about 110% of the US level, on a World Bank income of $25k per person (PPP, 2025).
That percentage is measured against your country, not against ours. It follows the country picker in the header, or your account if you are signed in. With neither, it falls back to the United States, which is the 100 of the World Bank index, and the sentence says so.
World Bank ICP price level (US=100) and GNI per capita PPP, CC BY 4.0. It is a national average: a capital runs above it and a small town below it.
Getting to Barbados
Its main airport has non-stop service to 18 airports in the OpenFlights route database.
| From | Routing | Flight time | Cheapest fare |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miami | Non-stop | 3h 46m | €322 |
| New York | Non-stop | 5h 07m | €295 |
| Toronto | Non-stop | 5h 10m | €415 |
| London | Non-stop | 9h 05m | €611 |
| London | Non-stop | 9h 15m | €647 |
| Amsterdam | Non-stop | 12h 20m | €1041 |
Airports and non-stop routes from OpenFlights (Open Database License). Fares and flight times are cached one-way economy prices from Travelpayouts, the cheapest seen recently rather than a live quote or an average. They move; treat them as an order of magnitude.
What to see in Barbados
Ordered by how many people looked each place up over the last twelve months, so the list is measured interest and not our taste.
museum
St. Nicholas Abbey
839 readers a month look it up
bay
Carlisle Bay
498 readers a month look it up
synagogue
Nidhe Israel Synagogue
404 readers a month look it up
UNESCOWorld Heritage Site
Garrison Historic Area
358 readers a month look it up
square
National Heroes Square
242 readers a month look it up
cave
Animal Flower Cave
139 readers a month look it up
windmill
Morgan Lewis Windmill
123 readers a month look it up
botanical garden
Andromeda Botanic Gardens
82 readers a month look it up
Photo credits
- St. Nicholas Abbey: Pontificalibus, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Carlisle Bay: User:JZimmerman (WMF), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Nidhe Israel Synagogue: NYC2TLV, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Garrison Historic Area: CaribDigita, PUBLIC DOMAIN, via Wikimedia Commons
- National Heroes Square: CaribDigita, PUBLIC DOMAIN, via Wikimedia Commons
- Animal Flower Cave: Berit from Redhill/Surrey, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Morgan Lewis Windmill: Postdlf, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Andromeda Botanic Gardens: Postdlf, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The practical basics
- Local time…Atlantic Standard Time, America/Barbados
- CurrencyBBDISO 4217
- LanguagesEnglish, Bajan Creole
- PlugsA, B115/200 V 50 Hz
- UK travel adviceNo blanket warningFCDO, reviewed 2026-01-23
- Population282,623World Bank
Currency codes ISO 4217; plugs and voltage from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); time zone and flag from the countries-states-cities database (ODbL 1.0); travel advice from the UK FCDO (Open Government Licence v3).
How many people visit
Barbados logged 966,000 international arrivals in 2019, the last year the World Bank series covers.
World Bank indicator ST.INT.ARVL, international tourism arrivals, CC BY 4.0. Arrivals count trips, not people: the same visitor twice in a year counts twice.
Tax in Barbados, in one line
Personal income tax runs up to 28.5 per cent. Capital gains: No capital gains tax (0%).
Tax figures are compiled by us and are being re-verified against primary sources. General information, not tax advice.
Data: World Bank, Open-Meteo, M-Lab, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, under open licences. General information, not tax or legal advice.