Kenya / Africa
Nairobi is a fast-growing East African capital known for a leading mobile-services sector, deep regional services and innovation, and active work on urban transit and resilience. Nairobi is a africa city of about 5.3M metro in Kenya. On the composite city-intelligence score, Nairobi sits around the indexed median (70/100).
Image credit: Image: Daryona / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Composite profile
70/100
Nairobi is most informative for users comparing innovation depth, mobile-services leadership, and renewable progress against rising urban-growth pressure and traffic congestion.
70/100
Strong affordability and innovation depth with congestion and infrastructure pressure to manage.
Leading
Mobile money and digital services shape daily life and small business.
Growing
Regional technology and services depth supports opportunity.
The table is part of the initial server-rendered HTML and mirrors the key city score cards.
| Metric | Value | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 70/100 | Composite score across major city intelligence modules. |
| Cost of Living | 80/100 | Nairobi offers favorable affordability for a major regional capital, with strong variation across districts and household profiles. |
| Air Quality | 64/100 | Nairobi's air-quality profile is shaped by traffic-related pollutants and dust, with monitoring depth and policy attention rising. |
| Energy | 76/100 | Nairobi benefits from a renewable-heavy national grid led by geothermal and hydro generation, with growing distributed solar adoption. |
| Safety | 66/100 | Nairobi has mid-tier safety with strong neighborhood variation; resident experience differs widely across districts and time of day. |
| Internet Speed | 78/100 | Nairobi delivers solid fiber broadband and strong mobile coverage, supporting a leading mobile-services sector and growing technology presence. |
| Climate Risk | 68/100 | Nairobi faces meaningful climate exposure from rainfall variability, drought cycles, and rising heat, balanced by active adaptation work. |
| Resilience | 68/100 | Climate adaptation and infrastructure continuity context. |
Deterministic safety estimates from our index — planning signals derived from country priors and city data, not official crime statistics.
Nairobi scores below average for safety in our index (47/100); research neighborhoods and take standard precautions.
A composite quality-of-life estimate and its component indicators.
Nairobi has a modest quality-of-life estimate (53/100) across our combined indicators.
How the city scores for raising a family, with the indicators that drive it.
Nairobi scores modest for family living (53/100).
Suitability for remote workers, based on connectivity, mobility, and livability.
Nairobi is moderate for remote workers (66/100), based on connectivity, affordability and walkability and day-to-day amenities.
Suitability for retirement, weighing healthcare, affordability, climate, and environment.
Nairobi is moderate for retirement (56/100), appealing for affordability.
Local public safety guidance for Nairobi, with the country-level emergency contacts that apply when calling for police, fire, or ambulance.
For the universal emergency contacts that apply in Nairobi, including police, fire, and ambulance, see the Kenya emergency profile, which currently lists no verified national contacts.
Methodology and the wider source registry are documented on the scoring methodology and data sources pages.
Healthcare context for Nairobi, with national-level information from Kenya where city-specific data is not yet verified. This is informational only and does not provide medical advice.
For the national healthcare and public-health context that applies in Nairobi, see the Kenya healthcare profile, which currently lists no verified national healthcare information.
Related sections: emergency and public safety, scoring methodology, and data sources.
Local mobility context for Nairobi, with national-level context from Kenya where city-specific data is not yet verified. This is informational only.
For national transport authorities and operators that apply in Nairobi, see the Kenya transport profile, which currently lists no verified national transport information.
Related sections: emergency and public safety, healthcare and hospitals, cities directory, countries directory, scoring methodology, data sources.
Source-attributed air-quality dataset for Nairobi. Verified measurements are surfaced when published from accepted official datasets; transparent fallback is shown otherwise.
Source-attributed values for Nairobi will appear here after the platform integrates verified measurements from accepted official publishers. Until then, structured air-quality module context remains available on the dedicated module page.
| Metric | Value | Data year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air quality | Verified air-quality measurements are not yet published for this location. | ||
Global City Intelligence — air-quality dataset
Verified data unavailableThe air-quality dataset begins empty by design. Verified city-level measurements appear here only after they are sourced from accepted publishers (WHO, EEA, US EPA, OpenAQ, OECD, or official national/city environmental agencies).
Numeric measurements appear in this section only after they are sourced from accepted official publishers. The dataset is independently validated at build time; malformed records cannot ship to production.
Quick, evidence-based answers about Nairobi drawn from this profile's indexed cost, climate, safety, economy, education, healthcare and nearby-nature data. Figures are deterministic estimates for orientation — verify specifics with official sources.
Yes — good quality of life (53/100) and a regional center economy.
Good (53/100) on safety, schools and green space.
More affordable than average; about 87,600 KES/month for one person (estimate).
Late spring to early autumn; warmest in Jan, coldest in Jul.
Mainly government, agriculture, tourism.
A semi-arid climate, averaging about 28.5°C.
Higher education is good (59/100).
Healthcare access is good (54/100).
Retirement suitability is good (59/100).
No major nature destinations are indexed within day-trip range.
Pairs that share a city, comparison intent, or region — useful for users planning a wider relocation, remote-work, or business decision.
City pages link to module and ranking pages so crawlers can move through the topic cluster naturally.
Nairobi offers favorable affordability for a major regional capital, with strong variation across districts and household profiles.
Nairobi's air-quality profile is shaped by traffic-related pollutants and dust, with monitoring depth and policy attention rising.
Nairobi benefits from a renewable-heavy national grid led by geothermal and hydro generation, with growing distributed solar adoption.
Nairobi has mid-tier safety with strong neighborhood variation; resident experience differs widely across districts and time of day.
Nairobi delivers solid fiber broadband and strong mobile coverage, supporting a leading mobile-services sector and growing technology presence.
Nairobi faces meaningful climate exposure from rainfall variability, drought cycles, and rising heat, balanced by active adaptation work.
Compare this city against other indexed cities in crawlable ranking tables.
Cost of living estimates for Nairobi — monthly budgets, rent, food, and transport in the local currency, plus an affordability score for comparison. Planning estimates derived from country baselines, not live prices.
Climate profile for Nairobi — Semi-Arid climate, annual average 28.5°C, comfort score 59/100. Month-by-month temperatures, rainfall, sunshine, and the best months to visit. Deterministic planning estimates, not a forecast.
Economy and jobs profile for Nairobi — regional center, economy score 54/100, key industries including government, agriculture, tourism. Employment, salary, startup, remote-work, and career indicators. Deterministic planning estimates.
Education profile for Nairobi — regional education center, education score 60/100, 6 representative universities, plus research, student life, and international-student indicators. Deterministic dataset, not institutional rankings.
Healthcare and retirement profile for Nairobi — mixed healthcare profile, healthcare score 54/100, retirement score 59/100. Medical access, specialist and emergency care, affordability, and retirement suitability. Deterministic planning estimates.
Estimate a monthly budget for Nairobi using your own housing, food, transport, healthcare, and lifestyle inputs. Planning estimator only — not an official cost-of-living measurement.
Plan a trip budget for Nairobi using your own accommodation, food, local transport, activities, travel, healthcare buffer, and emergency buffer inputs. Planning estimator only — not an official travel cost estimate.
Where else nearby you could spend a day or a weekend from Nairobi. Links are derived from geographic proximity, shared region, shared natural-recreation areas, transport corridors, and country borders — not popularity or tourism rankings.
Cross-border · about 503 km from Nairobi. Explore Kampala's city intelligence profile.
Cross-border · about 673 km from Nairobi. Explore Dar es Salaam's city intelligence profile.
Cross-border · about 749 km from Nairobi. Explore Kigali's city intelligence profile.
Cross-border · about 1168 km from Nairobi. Explore Addis Ababa's city intelligence profile.
Common questions about living in, visiting, working in, studying in and retiring to Nairobi, answered from the indexed cost-of-living, climate, safety, economy, education, healthcare and nearby-nature data on this profile.
Nairobi has a modest quality-of-life estimate (53/100) across our combined indicators. Visitors can also reach nature such as nearby parks and countryside within weekend range.
Nairobi has a modest quality-of-life estimate (53/100) across our combined indicators. It indexes 53/100 for overall quality of life.
A single resident of Nairobi spends roughly 87,600 KES per month, with a one-bedroom rent near 46,500 KES. Overall the city is more affordable than average for Kenya. These are modelled estimates, not live quotes — verify locally.
Plan for below-average living costs and check current rents before relocating. Nairobi is moderate for remote workers (66/100), based on connectivity, affordability and walkability and day-to-day amenities.
Nairobi's labour market is developing, with opportunities concentrated in tourism and hospitality, finance and professional services and education and research. Nairobi has a regional economy with strengths in government, agriculture and tourism.
Nairobi offers limited infrastructure and amenities for remote professionals, with a remote-work score of 52/100.
Nairobi is a regional education center with a mix of universities and research activity in our dataset, spanning fields such as Social Sciences, Physics and Mathematics.
Nairobi offers a strong student environment, supported by walkable neighborhoods and relatively affordable living.
Nairobi has a mixed healthcare profile, supported by hospitals, specialist services, and public-health infrastructure, with a healthcare score of 54/100. Residents have solid access to healthcare across primary, specialist, and emergency care.
Nairobi offers a combination of healthcare access, safety, and amenities that may appeal to retirees, with a retirement score of 59/100. Residents benefit from walkable streets and day-to-day services.
Nairobi has a semi-arid climate, averaging about 28.5°C annually with roughly 901 mm of rain. The hottest month is Jan and the coldest Jul. The driest is typically Jul.
Nairobi scores below average for safety in our index (47/100); research neighborhoods and take standard precautions.
Nairobi indexes a walkability score of 80 and a cycling score of 57 out of 100. Check the local operator for live transit routes and fares.
Nairobi has limited indexed nature destinations within day-trip range.
Nairobi scores modest for family living (53/100).
Nairobi rates 21/100 for outdoor lifestyle and 43/100 for green space.
Nairobi is most informative for users comparing innovation depth, mobile-services leadership, and renewable progress against rising urban-growth pressure and traffic congestion. Its standout dimensions are cost of living (80/100) and internet speed (78/100). The area most worth watching is air quality (64/100), where the model registers practical gaps. Data year 2025; last updated 2026-05-16. Drawn from 4 institutional references.
Country context is available on the Kenya country page. Related rankings include Overall Intelligence, Quality of Life, Remote Work. See where Nairobi appears in global rankings or read the scoring methodology.
Structured indicators on this page are directional and intended for orientation. Verified datasets are being integrated; official sources should be used for critical decisions.
4 institutional references inform this view, listed below with reliability notes. Structured indicators on this page are directional and intended for orientation; verified datasets are being integrated and official sources should be used for critical decisions.
Used as a policy and methodology reference for urban exposure and resilience signals.
Used to normalize air-quality indicators toward health-protective benchmarks.
Used as an energy-resource and weather-normalization reference.
Used to explain urban climate vulnerability and adaptation scoring logic.