Cost of Living in Cameroon
Image credit: Buma Peter
Purchasing Power vs. United States
Based on GDP per capita (PPP). Cameroon: $4,917/capita.
Cities in Cameroon
Income Category
Happiness
4.9 / 10
#103 globally
GDP per Capita
Population
How Far Your Money Goes
Prices are 59% lower than the global benchmark (New York City = 100).
Child Education
Public-schooling rules are not sourced for Cameroon yet. Country-level enrollment, instruction-language, and homeschool notes will appear here once verified.
Childcare & Domestic Help
Nanny, housekeeper, and driver pricing is not yet sourced for Cameroon. We publish this section only when we can tie it to verified local samples or a clearly marked country fallback.
Healthcare
System strength, outcome signals, facility coverage, and self-pay visibility in Cameroon.
Method: country metrics come from public system indicators, facility coverage reflects mapped providers we can inventory, direct pricing only reflects observed self-pay pages, and relative care cost can fall back to broad cost-of-living healthcare indices. Sparse pricing does not imply sparse healthcare availability.
Healthcare system
LimitedCoverage looks thinner, doctor staffing is lighter, and households still pay a large share themselves weigh on this rating.
Public care
LimitedPublic coverage looks thinner, public funding looks lighter, and patients still shoulder a meaningful share of costs weigh on this rating.
Private care
GoodA large tracked hospital and clinic network and a clearly private facility base help, but self-pay pricing transparency is still sparse.
UHC coverage
48/100
2023
Physicians
0.14/1k
2022
Hospital beds
2.65/1k
2016
Out of pocket
68%
2023
Outcome signals
Life expectancy
64.0 yrs
2024
Maternal mortality
258/100k
2023
Neonatal mortality
24.8/1k
2024
International patient readiness
MixedA visible private hospital base and multiple facilities have websites help, but price transparency is still sparse and headline outcomes are less reassuring.
Pricing transparency
LimitedMultiple facilities have crawlable websites help, but published self-pay prices are scarce.
Facility coverage
Self-pay pricing visibility
No verified self-pay prices are published for the tracked facilities in Cameroon yet.
This usually reflects low online price transparency rather than a lack of healthcare providers.
Notable facilities
System metrics: World Bank WDI · Updated 2026-06-01
Safety & Governance
Street Safety
Source: Numbeo where a city row is matched; otherwise World Bank WGI and country-level safety context.
Political Stability
World Bank WGI scale: -2.5 to +2.5.
Wages by Sector
| Sector | Median |
|---|---|
| Administrative & Support Services | — |
| Agriculture & Farming | — |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | — |
| Construction | — |
| Education | — |
| Finance & Insurance | — |
| Healthcare & Social Work | — |
| Hospitality & Food Service | — |
| Information & Technology | — |
| Manufacturing | — |
| Mining & Quarrying | — |
| Other Services | — |
| Professional & Scientific Services | — |
| Public Administration & Defence | — |
| Retail & Wholesale Trade | — |
| Transport & Logistics | — |
| Utilities | — |
2014 annual wages in Cameroon · Source: ILO ILOSTAT
Visa Information (US passport)
Short-stay entry
US passport holders need advance travel authorization or a visa before entry.
About Cameroon
Cameroon is a lower middle income country in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 29,123,744 people and a bilingual French-English setup that matters for daily paperwork as much as social life. Costs sit at the very affordable end of the regional range, and a comfortable budget is commonly framed around $800-1,500 per month, but that does not remove the need for planning. Yaounde and Douala are the practical bases for relocators because private clinics and infrastructure are better there, while rural healthcare access is limited and internet can be slow at 3-10 Mbps with outages. The tropical equatorial climate is hot and humid, with a May-October rainy season. The main caution is security: major cities can be manageable, but unrest in the NW/SW regions changes the risk calculation.
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Common questions about Cameroon
Sourced from SortaRich's public-data ranking engine — every figure links to its institutional source.
Is Cameroon a good country to live in?
Cameroon is a lower-rated country to live in per the World Happiness Report (4.9 of 10, ranking #103 globally). Whether it's right for you depends on your priorities — use SortaRich's free quiz to see how Cameroon ranks for your specific income, family, and visa profile.
Sources: World Happiness Report, SortaRich Methodology
How much does it cost to live in Cameroon?
The cost of living in Cameroon is about 59% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City), with an overall cost-of-living index of 41. SortaRich personalizes these numbers to your home city's purchasing power so the comparison is real, not nominal.
Sources: SortaRich Cost of Living, World Bank ICP 2021
How far does $1 go in Cameroon?
$1 goes about 2.8x further in Cameroon than in the baseline market — your home-country income stretches that much more (current PPP ratio: 2.84). The figure adjusts every year as exchange rates and local prices shift. SortaRich uses World Bank ICP 2021 as the anchor and Penn World Tables 11.0 for cross-validation.
Sources: World Bank ICP 2021, Penn World Tables 11.0
What visa do I need to move to Cameroon?
To move to Cameroon you have these visa options: Tourist entry: evisa. Visa rules change frequently — confirm the current terms with the official immigration authority before booking flights.
Source: SortaRich Visa Database
What are the best cities to live in Cameroon?
The best cities to live in Cameroon are Yaounde — those are the most-searched options among the 1 cities profiled in the SortaRich database. Each city page includes a personalized PPP comparison versus your home city plus subnational price data where available.
Source: SortaRich City Index