Cost of Living in Syria
Image credit: Samosyr at English Wikipedia
Purchasing Power vs. United States
Based on GDP per capita (PPP). Syria: $4,455/capita.
Cities in Syria
Income Category
GDP per Capita
Population
How Far Your Money Goes
Prices are 75% 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 Syria.
Quality
Limited public-school fit
Expat access
Usually not practical for expats
not practicalInstruction
Arabic
Language fit is more manageable.
PISA / outcomes
Qualitative only
Using curated quality notes for now.
Why this quality rating
Syria's public-school path is not a practical default for expat families given ongoing conflict-era disruption and local-language dependence.
Why the expat-access rating looks like this
Even where resident enrollment may be possible, Arabic-medium instruction and current system disruption make the public route usually impractical for expat families.
🚫 Homeschooling
Homeschooling not permittedSyria requires compulsory school attendance. Homeschooling is not legally permitted. The ongoing civil war has severely disrupted the education system, but this does not constitute a legal homeschooling framework.
Homeschool legality in Syria — 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 Syria.
Full-time nanny (5 days)
$300-$500
1 tracked city, not a national average
Live-in / 24-7 nanny
$550-$800
1 tracked city, not a national average
Source: curated family relocation research
Healthcare
System strength, outcome signals, facility coverage, and self-pay visibility in Syria.
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
LimitedMaternal mortality is low help, but hospital capacity looks tighter and households still pay a large share themselves.
Public care
LimitedA visible public hospital footprint help, but public funding looks lighter and patients still shoulder a meaningful share of costs.
Private care
GoodA large tracked hospital and clinic network and visible specialty depth help, but self-pay pricing transparency is still sparse.
UHC coverage
70/100
2023
Physicians
1.52/1k
2021
Hospital beds
1.43/1k
2021
Out of pocket
72%
2023
Outcome signals
Life expectancy
72.6 yrs
2024
Maternal mortality
20/100k
2023
Neonatal mortality
9.5/1k
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 Syria 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 | — |
| Real Estate | — |
| Retail & Wholesale Trade | — |
| Transport & Logistics | — |
| Utilities | — |
2022 annual wages in Syria · Source: GDP-derived estimate
Visa Information (US passport)
Short-stay entry
US passport holders need advance travel authorization or a visa before entry.
About Syria
Syria is a low-income country with Damascus as its capital, and it should be treated as a high-risk relocation case rather than a normal low-cost destination. Day-to-day costs are very low compared with the regional average, but that signal is not very useful because security risk, damaged infrastructure, and service disruption dominate the practical picture. Arabic is the official language, visas are highly restricted for many nationalities, and most relocation is limited to security-vetted professionals tied to international organizations or diplomatic missions. Healthcare quality and availability are limited, with many expats relying on treatment abroad, while internet access can be sporadic and unreliable. The climate brings hot, dry summers and milder winters near the coast, but safety and infrastructure constraints should outweigh climate or price in any decision.
See the full breakdown — free
No password needed. Takes ~30 seconds.
Common questions about Syria
Sourced from SortaRich's public-data ranking engine — every figure links to its institutional source.
How much does it cost to live in Syria?
The cost of living in Syria is about 75% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City), with an overall cost-of-living index of 25. 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 Syria?
$1 goes about 7.4x further in Syria than in the baseline market — your home-country income stretches that much more (current PPP ratio: 7.40). 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 Syria?
To move to Syria 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 Syria?
The best cities to live in Syria are Damascus — 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