---
title: "Is Saudi Arabia a Good Place to Live? — Geo-Parity"
description: "Saudi Arabia (Riyadh): 155.4 Mbps internet, safety 94/100, healthcare 83/100 — essentials ≈ $949/month, so $3k lives \"like royalty\". Full quality-vs-cost breakdown."
canonical: "https://geo-parity.com/livability/saudi-arabia/"
json: "https://geo-parity.com/api/livability.json"
generator: geo-parity markdown twin
---
Livability · rank 90/167

# Is 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) a good place to live?

Quality score **61/100** against essentials of **$949/month**. Rapidly opening up; dust-driven air quality among the region's tougher aspects.

## The five metrics

Internet 62 155.4 Mbps median broadband, 100% online

Safety 94 0.9 homicides/100k (2019)

Healthcare 83 UHC service coverage 83/100 (2023)

Air quality 11 PM2.5 45 µg/m³ (2023)

English 55 day-to-day usability

## 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**: middling
- World Bank WGI estimate 0.21 · corruption control 0.75 · stability -0.05 (2024). Scale −2.5 to +2.5, higher is better.
- **What connectivity costs**: $8 /mo broadband
- Mobile 10GB $23/month. ITU price basket. The speed above is scored; this price is not.

## What your budget buys

| Monthly budget | vs essentials ($949) | Verdict |
| --- | --- | --- |
| $2,000 | 2.1× | very comfortable |
| $3,000 | 3.2× | like royalty |
| $5,000 | 5.3× | like royalty |

Essentials from the [Pint & Property basket](https://geo-parity.com/expenses/?tab=prices). Rank countries by your own priorities in the [interactive matrix](https://geo-parity.com/livability/).

🪤 Tax residency triggers at **183 days**. [Tax residency details →](https://geo-parity.com/tax-residency/saudi-arabia/)

## Similar value-for-money

- [🇧🇼 Botswana](https://geo-parity.com/livability/botswana/) — quality 47.2, essentials $736/mo
- [🇵🇪 Peru](https://geo-parity.com/livability/peru/) — quality 67.9, essentials $1,046/mo
- [🇲🇹 Malta](https://geo-parity.com/livability/malta/) — quality 91.3, essentials $1,403/mo
- [🇺🇬 Uganda](https://geo-parity.com/livability/uganda/) — quality 41.4, essentials $633/mo

See also: [everyday prices](https://geo-parity.com/cost-of-living/united-states-vs-saudi-arabia/) · [retiring in Saudi Arabia](https://geo-parity.com/fire/saudi-arabia/)

## Frequently asked questions

- **Is Saudi Arabia a good place to live for remote workers?**: Saudi Arabia scores 61/100 on our equal-weighted livability composite (internet 155.4 Mbps, safety 94, healthcare 83, air quality 11, english 55) — rank 90 of 167. Rapidly opening up; dust-driven air quality among the region's tougher aspects.
- **How fast is the internet in Saudi Arabia?**: Median fixed broadband is around 155.4 Mbps. Rapidly opening up; dust-driven air quality among the region's tougher aspects.
- **What does $3,000/month get you in Saudi Arabia?**: Single-person essentials run about $949/month at local prices, so $3,000 lives "like royalty" (3.2× essentials).

Safety, healthcare and air quality are objective figures from the World Bank (homicide rate, life expectancy) and WHO (PM2.5); internet speed and English are curated. City variation is real — verify locally. Agents: GET /api/livability.json?budget=3000.

---

Source: Geo-Parity — https://geo-parity.com/livability/saudi-arabia/ · JSON: https://geo-parity.com/api/livability.json