Cost of Living in Yemen
Image credit: User:Kalan
Purchasing Power vs. United States
Based on GDP per capita (PPP). Yemen: $433/capita.
Cities in Yemen
Income Category
Happiness
3.6 / 10
#131 globally
GDP per Capita
Population
How Far Your Money Goes
Prices are 47% 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 Yemen.
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
Yemen's public-school path is not a realistic default for expat families under current conditions.
Why the expat-access rating looks like this
Even where enrollment is possible, Arabic-medium instruction and ongoing system disruption make the public route usually impractical for expat families.
❓ Homeschooling
Not specifically addressedYemen has compulsory education laws but the ongoing conflict has severely disrupted the education system. No formal homeschooling framework exists. Not a practical destination for worldschooling families.
Homeschool legality in Yemen — 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 Yemen.
Full-time nanny (5 days)
$225-$325
1 tracked city, not a national average
Live-in / 24-7 nanny
$350-$550
1 tracked city, not a national average
Source: curated family relocation research
Healthcare
System strength, outcome signals, facility coverage, and self-pay visibility in Yemen.
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 hospital capacity looks tighter 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
43/100
2023
Physicians
0.10/1k
2023
Hospital beds
0.46/1k
2023
Out of pocket
69%
2023
Outcome signals
Life expectancy
69.4 yrs
2024
Maternal mortality
118/100k
2023
Neonatal mortality
20.9/1k
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 Yemen 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 | — |
2014 annual wages in Yemen · Source: ILO ILOSTAT (sector aggregate)
Visa Information (US passport)
Short-stay entry
US passport holders need advance travel authorization or a visa before entry.
About Yemen
Yemen is a low-income country in the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan region, with Sana'a as its capital and Arabic as the official language. For cost-of-living comparisons it sits at the extremely low end of the regional range, but that number is mostly unusable for relocation planning because active conflict, critical safety risk, and weak government services dominate everyday decisions. Entry is also highly difficult: visa access is very restrictive, so Yemen is not a realistic base for most remote workers, retirees, or families. Infrastructure is the practical blocker as much as security: healthcare facilities are limited and poor, and internet service is unreliable and inconsistent. The hot desert climate with monsoon influence adds another layer to weigh, but the larger issue is that low costs do not offset severe instability.
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Common questions about Yemen
Sourced from SortaRich's public-data ranking engine — every figure links to its institutional source.
Is Yemen a good country to live in?
Yemen is a lower-rated country to live in per the World Happiness Report (3.6 of 10, ranking #131 globally). Whether it's right for you depends on your priorities — use SortaRich's free quiz to see how Yemen ranks for your specific income, family, and visa profile.
Sources: World Happiness Report, SortaRich Methodology
How much does it cost to live in Yemen?
The cost of living in Yemen is about 47% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City), with an overall cost-of-living index of 53. 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 Yemen?
$1 goes about 2.5x further in Yemen than in the baseline market — your home-country income stretches that much more (current PPP ratio: 2.55). 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 Yemen?
To move to Yemen you have these visa options: Tourist entry: visa_required. 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 Yemen?
The best cities to live in Yemen are Sanaa — 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