Global CityIntelligence

Namibia / Southern Africa

Windhoek City Intelligence

Windhoek is Namibia's capital and largest city, in a semi-arid central-plateau setting, with national-services anchor role and active water-resource planning. Windhoek is a southern africa city of about ~0.4M city in Namibia. On the composite city-intelligence score, Windhoek sits below the indexed median, with practical gaps to close (66/100).

Last updated
2026-05-16
Data year
2025
Population
~0.4M city
View of Windhoek, Namibia

Image credit: Image: Bries / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5

Overall score

Use the Windhoek profile to compare cost framing, country-level context, and arid-resilience signals alongside other Southern-African capitals.

Overall66/100
Affordability70/100
Air quality76/100
Energy64/100

Overall city intelligence

Mixed

66/100

Composite directional score across affordability, air quality, clean energy, and resilience.

Data confidence

Directional

Directional indicators pending integration of verified city-level data.

Verified utility layers

See country hub

Emergency, healthcare, and transport verification status appears on the country hub.

Windhoek data table

The table is part of the initial server-rendered HTML and mirrors the key city score cards.

Windhoek city intelligence data table
MetricValueContext
Overall score66/100Composite score across major city intelligence modules.
Cost of Living70/100Windhoek's cost-of-living profile is a directional indicator pending integration of verified city-level data; structured benchmark context applies.
Air Quality76/100Windhoek's air-quality profile is a directional indicator framed against WHO and regional benchmarks; verified city-level measurements appear in the dedicated air-quality dataset section once integrated.
Energy64/100Windhoek's energy-readiness profile is a directional indicator that combines national policy framing with city-level adaptation context.
Safety63/100Windhoek's safety profile is a directional indicator; verified country-level emergency profiles attach via the country hub where available.
Internet Speed65/100Windhoek's connectivity profile is a directional indicator combining national digital-readiness context with widely cited speed-test references.
Climate Risk60/100Windhoek's climate-risk profile is a directional indicator combining regional hazard categories with national adaptation capacity.
Resilience60/100Climate adaptation and infrastructure continuity context.

Safety

Deterministic safety estimates from our index — planning signals derived from country priors and city data, not official crime statistics.

Safety

Overall safety58/100
Low crime60/100
Personal safety59/100
Night safety54/100
Road safety59/100

Windhoek has a moderate safety estimate (58/100); standard urban precautions are advised, particularly after dark.

Quality of Life

A composite quality-of-life estimate and its component indicators.

Quality of Life

Quality of life59/100
Healthcare63/100
Education66/100
Green space45/100
Cleanliness65/100
Infrastructure65/100
Mobility56/100

Windhoek has a moderate quality-of-life estimate (59/100) across our combined indicators.

Family Friendliness

How the city scores for raising a family, with the indicators that drive it.

Family Friendliness

Family friendliness60/100
Education66/100
Green space45/100
Overall safety58/100

Windhoek scores moderate for family living (60/100).

Digital Nomad Suitability

Suitability for remote workers, based on connectivity, mobility, and livability.

Digital Nomad Suitability

Digital nomad suitability65/100
Walkability72/100
Cycling60/100
Infrastructure65/100

Windhoek is moderate for remote workers (65/100), based on connectivity, affordability and walkability and day-to-day amenities.

Retirement Suitability

Suitability for retirement, weighing healthcare, affordability, climate, and environment.

Retirement Suitability

Retirement suitability61/100
Healthcare63/100
Cleanliness65/100
Outdoor lifestyle22/100

Windhoek is moderate for retirement (61/100), appealing for affordability.

Emergency and public safety in Windhoek

Local public safety guidance for Windhoek, with the country-level emergency contacts that apply when calling for police, fire, or ambulance.

Unverified

For the universal emergency contacts that apply in Windhoek, including police, fire, and ambulance, see the Namibia 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 and hospitals in Windhoek

Healthcare context for Windhoek, with national-level information from Namibia where city-specific data is not yet verified. This is informational only and does not provide medical advice.

Unverified

For the national healthcare and public-health context that applies in Windhoek, see the Namibia healthcare profile, which currently lists no verified national healthcare information.

Related sections: emergency and public safety, scoring methodology, and data sources.

Transport and mobility in Windhoek

Local mobility context for Windhoek, with national-level context from Namibia where city-specific data is not yet verified. This is informational only.

Unverified

For national transport authorities and operators that apply in Windhoek, see the Namibia 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.

Air quality dataset

Source-attributed air-quality dataset for Windhoek. Verified measurements are surfaced when published from accepted official datasets; transparent fallback is shown otherwise.

Air quality dataset for Windhoek

Verified data unavailableLast updated 2026-05-16 / data year 2025

Verified air-quality measurements are not yet published for this location

Source-attributed values for Windhoek 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.

Windhoek air-quality dataset coverage
MetricValueData yearStatus
Air qualityVerified air-quality measurements are not yet published for this location.

Data provenance

Source attribution

  • Global City Intelligence — air-quality dataset

    Verified data unavailable
    Publisher
    Global City Intelligence
    Last verified
    2026-05-16

    The 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).

Explore Windhoek modules

City pages link to module and ranking pages so crawlers can move through the topic cluster naturally.

Cost of Living in Windhoek

Windhoek's cost-of-living profile is a directional indicator pending integration of verified city-level data; structured benchmark context applies.

Air Quality in Windhoek

Windhoek's air-quality profile is a directional indicator framed against WHO and regional benchmarks; verified city-level measurements appear in the dedicated air-quality dataset section once integrated.

Energy in Windhoek

Windhoek's energy-readiness profile is a directional indicator that combines national policy framing with city-level adaptation context.

Safety in Windhoek

Windhoek's safety profile is a directional indicator; verified country-level emergency profiles attach via the country hub where available.

Internet Speed in Windhoek

Windhoek's connectivity profile is a directional indicator combining national digital-readiness context with widely cited speed-test references.

Climate Risk in Windhoek

Windhoek's climate-risk profile is a directional indicator combining regional hazard categories with national adaptation capacity.

City rankings

Compare this city against other indexed cities in crawlable ranking tables.

Cost of living in Windhoek

Cost of living estimates for Windhoek — 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 in Windhoek

Climate profile for Windhoek — Desert climate, annual average 26.6°C, comfort score 56/100. Month-by-month temperatures, rainfall, sunshine, and the best months to visit. Deterministic planning estimates, not a forecast.

Economy and jobs in Windhoek

Economy and jobs profile for Windhoek — regional center, economy score 58/100, key industries including government, mining, tourism. Employment, salary, startup, remote-work, and career indicators. Deterministic planning estimates.

Universities and education in Windhoek

Education profile for Windhoek — regional education center, education score 57/100, 4 representative universities, plus research, student life, and international-student indicators. Deterministic dataset, not institutional rankings.

Healthcare and retirement in Windhoek

Healthcare and retirement profile for Windhoek — mixed healthcare profile, healthcare score 57/100, retirement score 58/100. Medical access, specialist and emergency care, affordability, and retirement suitability. Deterministic planning estimates.

Estimate a monthly budget for Windhoek

Estimate a monthly budget for Windhoek 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 Windhoek

Plan a trip budget for Windhoek using your own accommodation, food, local transport, activities, travel, healthcare buffer, and emergency buffer inputs. Planning estimator only — not an official travel cost estimate.

Nearby cities from Windhoek

Where else nearby you could spend a day or a weekend from Windhoek. Links are derived from geographic proximity, shared region, shared natural-recreation areas, transport corridors, and country borders — not popularity or tourism rankings.

Gaborone, Botswana

Cross-border · about 928 km from Windhoek. Explore Gaborone's city intelligence profile.

Pretoria, South Africa

Cross-border · about 1180 km from Windhoek. Explore Pretoria's city intelligence profile.

Interpretation

Use the Windhoek profile to compare cost framing, country-level context, and arid-resilience signals alongside other Southern-African capitals. Its standout dimensions are air quality (76/100) and cost of living (70/100). The area most worth watching is climate risk (60/100), 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 Namibia country page. Related rankings include Overall Intelligence, Quality of Life, Remote Work. See where Windhoek 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.

Sources

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.