Livability · rank 99/167
Is 🇧🇹 Bhutan (Thimphu) a good place to live?
Quality score 56/100 against essentials of $418/month.
The five metrics
Internet 25 61.4 Mbps median broadband, 91.3% online
Safety 85 2.5 homicides/100k (2020)
Healthcare 69 UHC service coverage 69/100 (2023)
Air quality 46 PM2.5 29.5 µg/m³ (2023)
Beside the score, not inside it
Neither of these is part of the composite above, deliberately. Folding governance into a quality-of-life number would bury a political judgement where you could not see it or argue with it, and connection price is a different question from connection speed — somewhere fast and expensive and somewhere slow and cheap are different trade-offs, not one average.
- Rule of law
- strong
- World Bank WGI estimate 0.79 · corruption control 1.47 · stability 1.35 (2024). Scale −2.5 to +2.5, higher is better.
- What connectivity costs
- $5.76 /mo broadband
- Mobile 10GB $7.84/month. ITU price basket. The speed above is scored; this price is not.
What your budget buys
| Monthly budget | vs essentials ($418) | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| $2,000 | 4.8× | like royalty |
| $3,000 | 7.2× | like royalty |
| $5,000 | 11.9× | like royalty |
Essentials from the Pint & Property basket. Rank countries by your own priorities in the interactive matrix.
Similar value-for-money
- 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan — quality 64, essentials $478/mo
- 🇮🇳 India — quality 55.9, essentials $408/mo
- 🇲🇾 Malaysia — quality 79.2, essentials $617/mo
- 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan — quality 70.4, essentials $552/mo
See also: everyday prices · retiring in Bhutan
Frequently asked questions
- Is Bhutan a good place to live for remote workers?
- Bhutan scores 56/100 on our equal-weighted livability composite (internet 61.4 Mbps, safety 85, healthcare 69, air quality 46; English not scored) — rank 99 of 167.
- How fast is the internet in Bhutan?
- Median fixed broadband is around 61.4 Mbps.
- What does $3,000/month get you in Bhutan?
- Single-person essentials run about $418/month at local prices, so $3,000 lives "like royalty" (7.2× essentials).