Photo: Felipeortegag · CC BY SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Colombia
Spanish · COP · Colombia Time
How it scores for living there
- 38%Cost of livingRated 4 of 5 for living there, good
- 39%Income taxRated 1 of 5 for living there, bad
- AppliesCapital gainsRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 21MbpsInternetRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 2.54Doctors /1,000Rated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 18PM2.5 ug/m3Rated 2 of 5 for living there, poor
- 24.9Homicide /100kRated 1 of 5 for living there, bad
- 77.9Life expectancyRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 79%People onlineRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 39Corruption indexRated 2 of 5 for living there, poor
- 12of 12Mild monthsRated 5 of 5 for living there, ideal
Facts, not judgements
- UTC-5Time zone
- COPCurrency
- SpanishLanguage
- A, BPower plug
- 4.5mVisitors 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 Colombia
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Who can help you in Colombia
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
Sea off Cartagena: warmest September at 30°C, coolest February at 29°C.
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, Colombia costs about 38% of the US level, on a World Bank income of $22k 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 Colombia
Its main airport has non-stop service to 8 airports in the OpenFlights route database.
| From | Routing | Flight time | Cheapest fare |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miami | Non-stop | 2h 58m | €271 |
| New York | Non-stop | 5h 10m | €587 |
| Amsterdam | Non-stop | 13h 55m | €1246 |
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 Colombia
Ordered by how many people looked each place up over the last twelve months, so the list is measured interest and not our taste.
river
Amazon
40,762 readers a month look it up
mountain range
Andes
34,673 readers a month look it up
river
Orinoco River
11,175 readers a month look it up
island
Saint Andrew
5,954 readers a month look it up
non-geologically related mountain range
American Cordillera
5,876 readers a month look it up
church building
Las Lajas Sanctuary
5,692 readers a month look it up
volcano
Nevado del Ruiz
5,427 readers a month look it up
river
Rio Negro
4,261 readers a month look it up
Photo credits
- Amazon: Neil Palmer/CIAT, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Andes: Originally uploaded by JuWiki (Transferred by Grondemar), PUBLIC DOMAIN, via Wikimedia Commons
- Orinoco River: Venecon at English Wikipedia, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Saint Andrew: Mr.Jhosimar, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- American Cordillera: Miguel Vieira (talk · contribs), PUBLIC DOMAIN, via Wikimedia Commons
- Las Lajas Sanctuary: Diego Delso, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Nevado del Ruiz: U.S. Geological Survey, PUBLIC DOMAIN, via Wikimedia Commons
- Rio Negro: No machine-readable author provided. Ymichel~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claim, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The practical basics
- Local time…Colombia Time, America/Bogota
- CurrencyCOPISO 4217
- LanguagesSpanish
- PlugsA, B120/208 V 60 Hz
- Safe tap water74%of people on a safely managed supply, World Bank 2024
- UK travel adviceAdvises against travelFCDO, reviewed 2026-09-03
- Population53.4mWorld 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
Colombia logged 1.4 million international arrivals in 2020, the last year the World Bank series covers. That is a pandemic year and it is not what a normal year looks like: in 2019 the same series counted 4.5 million.
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 Colombia, in one line
Personal income tax runs up to 39 per cent. Capital gains: 15% flat (ganancias ocasionales) on assets held >=2 yrs; <2 yrs taxed as ordinary income up to 39%; lottery 20%.
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.