Living in Ecuador

Ecuador's pay lands in the middle range, and the tax bite is notably light, so almost all of what you earn stays in your hands. Set against everyday costs that are themselves middling, that leaves a modest cushion, real if not generous. The catch is familiar across the region. Hiring is built around local ties, and someone arriving cold, with English that opens only certain doors, should expect the search to take patience.

Ecuador sends more people abroad than it takes in, with about 1.2M emigrants — a diaspora that has grown 17% over the past decade. They settle mainly in the United States (561.9K) and Spain (432.1K), the two long-standing poles of Ecuadorian migration. At the same time the country has become a regional refuge: of its 740.7K foreign-born residents, nearly half were born in Venezuela.