Cost of Living in Paraguay
Image credit: Felipe Antonio
Purchasing Power vs. United States
Based on GDP per capita (PPP). Paraguay: $16,296/capita.
Cities in Paraguay
Income Category
Happiness
6.0 / 10
#58 globally
GDP per Capita
Population
How Far Your Money Goes
Prices are 72% lower than the global benchmark (New York City = 100).
Child Education
Public-school quality, expat access, instruction language, and homeschool legality for relocating families.
Public schools
How realistic the local public-school path is for a relocating family in Paraguay.
Quality
Limited public-school fit
Expat access
Possible for resident families
conditionalInstruction
Spanish / Guarani
Language fit is more manageable.
PISA / outcomes
Qualitative only
Using curated quality notes for now.
Why this quality rating
Paraguay's public schools can work for local families, but quality varies and the strongest options for internationally mobile households are usually private schools in and around Asunción.
Why the expat-access rating looks like this
Resident foreign families can usually enroll, but Spanish- and Guaraní-influenced schooling plus uneven school quality make the public path a situational fit for expat families.
📋 Homeschooling
Legal with school enrollmentParaguay permits homeschooling through "educación en casa" provisions. Students must be enrolled at a school for assessment and certification purposes. Paraguay has become popular with expats for its low taxes and cost of living.
Homeschool legality in Paraguay — check current regulations before committing.
Source: User-curated family relocation research (initial seed) (2026-04-14)
Childcare & Domestic Help
Current city samples for the family-support costs we track in Paraguay.
Full-time nanny (5 days)
$475-$675
1 tracked city, not a national average
Live-in / 24-7 nanny
$850-$1,150
1 tracked city, not a national average
Source: curated family relocation research
Healthcare
System strength, outcome signals, facility coverage, and self-pay visibility in Paraguay.
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
GoodGood national coverage and strong doctor availability help, but hospital capacity looks tighter.
Public care
MixedA visible public hospital footprint help, but patients still shoulder a meaningful share of costs.
Private care
MixedA large tracked hospital and clinic network help, but self-pay pricing transparency is still sparse.
UHC coverage
79/100
2023
Physicians
3.89/1k
2022
Hospital beds
1.04/1k
2022
Out of pocket
36%
2023
Outcome signals
Life expectancy
74.0 yrs
2024
Maternal mortality
58/100k
2023
Neonatal mortality
8.6/1k
2024
International patient readiness
MixedMultiple facilities have websites and there is visible specialty depth help, but price transparency is still sparse.
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 Paraguay 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 |
|---|---|
| Agriculture & Farming | — |
| Manufacturing | — |
2025 annual wages in Paraguay · Source: ILO ILOSTAT (sector aggregate)
Visa Information (US passport)
Short-stay entry
US passport holders can stay up to 90 days without a visa.
About Paraguay
Paraguay is one of the lower-cost choices in Latin America and the Caribbean, with comfortable living often documented around $800-1,200 per month for budget-focused relocators. Asuncion is the practical base: it has the better private clinics, more services, and the deepest expat infrastructure, but petty crime is a real consideration. Rural and suburban areas are generally safer, yet healthcare becomes basic and internet can drop to 5-15 Mbps outside major cities. Spanish and Guarani are both official languages, so daily life is not Spanish-only, especially beyond the capital. The climate is subtropical, with hot, humid summers from December to March and mild winters. Dollar holders may find the stable Paraguayan guarani favorable, but infrastructure gaps need planning.
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Common questions about Paraguay
Sourced from SortaRich's public-data ranking engine — every figure links to its institutional source.
Is Paraguay a good country to live in?
Paraguay is a moderately rated country to live in per the World Happiness Report (6.0 of 10, ranking #58 globally). Whether it's right for you depends on your priorities — use SortaRich's free quiz to see how Paraguay ranks for your specific income, family, and visa profile.
Sources: World Happiness Report, SortaRich Methodology
How much does it cost to live in Paraguay?
The cost of living in Paraguay is about 71% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City), with an overall cost-of-living index of 29. 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 Paraguay?
$1 goes about 2.3x further in Paraguay than in the baseline market — your home-country income stretches that much more (current PPP ratio: 2.31). 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 Paraguay?
To move to Paraguay you have these visa options: Tourist entry: visa_free (90 days). 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 Paraguay?
The best cities to live in Paraguay are Asuncion — 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