Cost of Living inCaracas, Venezuela
Image credit: Wilfredor
Purchasing Power vs. United States
Based on GDP per capita (PPP). Venezuela: $4,218/capita.
How Far Your Money Goes
Prices are 54% lower than the global benchmark (New York City = 100).
Income Category
Happiness
5.6 / 10
#77 globally
GDP per Capita
City Population
Monthly Costs
Rent
Food
Transport
Utilities
Education
Child Education
Public-school quality + expat access, alongside international and private school cost — the two paths a relocating family weighs.
Public schools
Public-schooling rules are set nationally for Venezuela; Caracas-specific enrollment notes are still being verified.
Quality
Limited public-school fit
Expat access
Usually not practical for expats
not practicalInstruction
Spanish
Language fit is more manageable.
PISA / outcomes
Qualitative only
Using curated quality notes for now.
Why this quality rating
Venezuela's public-school path is not usually a compelling default for expat families seeking predictability and strong support.
Why the expat-access rating looks like this
Even where resident enrollment is possible, Spanish-medium instruction and system instability make the public route usually unattractive for expat families.
❓ Homeschooling
Not specifically regulatedVenezuela has constitutional provisions for education but homeschooling is not specifically addressed. The economic crisis has severely disrupted formal schooling. Not a primary destination for worldschooling families under current conditions.
Homeschool legality in Venezuela — check current regulations before committing.
Source: User-curated family relocation research (initial seed) (2026-04-14)
International & private schools
Childcare & Domestic Help
Current nanny and household-help pricing snapshot for Caracas, Venezuela.
Full-time nanny (5 days)
$325-$500
monthly · confidence 0.65
Live-in / 24-7 nanny
$575-$850
monthly · confidence 0.65
Source: curated family relocation research
Getting Around
The concrete mobility picture for Caracas: airport access, urban transit, and rideshare practicality.
Airport
International airport
Simón Bolívar / Maiquetía handles Caracas’s core long-haul and regional air access and remains Venezuela’s main international gateway.
Urban transit
Metro and bus
Caracas has a real rail-and-bus spine through the Metro and feeder bus network, even if reliability and cross-city convenience vary more than in stronger Latin American systems.
Rideshare
Taxi-first, limited app coverage
Families should expect taxis and locally arranged rides to matter more than a deep app-hailed market.
Source: User-curated family relocation research (initial seed) (2026-04-14)
Healthcare
System strength, outcome signals, facility coverage, and self-pay visibility in Venezuela.
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
LimitedGood national coverage help, but hospital capacity looks tighter and maternal outcomes are weaker.
Public care
LimitedA visible public hospital footprint help, but public funding looks lighter and country-level outcomes are weaker.
Private care
GoodA meaningful tracked hospital and clinic network and visible specialty depth help, but self-pay pricing transparency is still sparse.
UHC coverage
75/100
2023
Physicians
1.66/1k
2017
Hospital beds
0.99/1k
2020
Out of pocket
30%
2023
Outcome signals
Life expectancy
72.7 yrs
2024
Maternal mortality
227/100k
2023
Neonatal mortality
15.0/1k
2024
International patient readiness
LimitedMultiple facilities have websites and there is visible specialty depth 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 Venezuela 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 | — |
2020 annual wages in Caracas, Venezuela · Source: ILO ILOSTAT (sector aggregate) (national)
Price Comparison vs. US
Visa Information (US passport)
Short-stay entry
US passport holders need advance travel authorization or a visa before entry.
Quick comparison FAQ
Structured from the deltas already shown on this page — no invented facts, no extra data sources.
How far does your money go in Caracas compared with the US?
Your money goes about 34.4x further in Caracas than in the US, based on the current PPP estimate.
Is Caracas cheaper or more expensive overall than New York City?
Caracas is cheaper overall than New York City — overall living costs are about 54% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City) for Caracas.
How does rent in Caracas compare with New York City?
Rent in Caracas is about 87% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City).
How expensive are groceries and restaurants in Caracas?
Groceries in Caracas are about 46% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City), and restaurant prices are about 52% cheaper than the same benchmark.
About Caracas
Caracas is the capital of Venezuela, sitting in a coastal mountain valley at roughly 900 meters elevation, which gives it a year-round spring-like climate unusual for its latitude. The relocation calculus here is dominated by macro conditions: years of hyperinflation, currency controls, sanctions exposure, and security concerns that have made Caracas one of the most challenging Latin American capitals for foreign residents. Petroleum-sector personnel, accredited diplomats, and Venezuelan-family returnees make up most of the foreign presence. Infrastructure tiers diverge extremely sharply between eastern districts like Altamira and Las Mercedes and western informal settlements. Spanish fluency is essential. Anyone considering Caracas should do so with current, on-the-ground security and banking advice rather than pre-2017 references.
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