Clermont-Ferrand
France · Europe · 146,351 people · Europe/Paris · EUR
Clermont-Ferrand scores 65/100 for digital nomads under balanced weights, ranking 413 of 1501 cities. Expect about $2,450 per month (country-level estimate), no dedicated nomad visa, and a measured median download speed of 61.3 Mbps.
Clermont-Ferrand is the home of Michelin, with a black lava-stone cathedral, a tram line, a large student population, a large short-film festival each winter and the volcanoes of the Chaîne des Puys, a UNESCO site, on its doorstep for hiking. Rents are moderate, but the train to Paris takes about 3 h 30 and is often late, the airport has few routes and winters are cold.
- Chaîne des Puys volcanoes
- Black lava-stone cathedral
- Michelin headquarters
- Short film festival
Eating out
OpenStreetMap, 2026-1116248restaurants within 3 km
Mapped around the centre of Clermont-Ferrand: a modest scene, worth checking the neighbourhoods. A count of what is on the map, not a rating, and it does not affect the score.
How Clermont-Ferrand scores, factor by factor
Superscripts link to the source list at the bottom. Country-level figures apply to all of France.
Cost of living
Monthly cost for one person (log-scaled, cheaper is better).31
Safety
Homicide rate and political stability (country-level).68
Healthcare
WHO universal-health-coverage index and life expectancy (country-level).87
Internet
Median measured download and upload speed (M-Lab, city-level; the province or country aggregate where the city has too few tests).82
Visa ease
How easily your passport gets in and stays: visa-free days, eTA, visa on arrival, e-visa or consular visa, plus a nomad visa and how affordable its income threshold is. Averages US, EU and UK passports until you pick yours.61
Getting there & around
Non-stop airport destinations (hub size) plus editorial walkability and transit ratings.45
Climate
Share of months that are comfortable: 59–82°F (15–28 °C) mean, at most 5.9 in (150 mm) rain, at most 85% humidity.33
- Comfortable months: 4 of 1214 · city-level, 2001–2020 normals
Air quality
Annual mean PM2.5 on a fixed scale: 5 µg/m³ (WHO guideline) scores 100, 50 µg/m³ or worse scores 0.97
- Annual mean PM2.5: 6.4 µg/m³15 · city-level, 2024
Quality of life
Human Development Index and English proficiency (country-level).81
What does Clermont-Ferrand cost per month?
| Total, one person | $2,450 | country estimate |
|---|---|---|
| One-bedroom rent, centre | no data | city-level rent unavailable |
| Country cost index (US = 100) | 67 | country |
Can you stay legally?
| Nomad visa | none listed | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum income | — | |
| US passport | 90 days | |
| EU passport | unlimited | |
| UK passport | 90 days | |
Visa rules change often. Verify with the issuing government before you book.
Do you pay tax here on income from abroad?
Airports and nonstop flights
Clermont-Ferrand is served by 2 airports; a destination reachable from more than one counts once in the total.
| Airport | Nonstop destinations | International | From US airports |
|---|---|---|---|
| CFEClermont-Ferrand Auvergne Airport | 7 | 2 | 0 |
| LYSLyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport | 142 | 120 | 0 |
| All airports, unique destinations | 142 | 120 | 0 |
Wikipedia airport pages as of 2026-10: seasonal routes included, charters and announced-but-not-started routes excluded.
What is the weather like through the year?
Comfortable months by our rule: Jun–Sep. Rank cities for Jun–Aug →
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean °F | 35 | 36 | 42 | 49 | 56 | 64 | 68 | 67 | 60 | 53 | 43 | 37 |
| Rain in | 1.7 | 1.3 | 1.8 | 2.5 | 3.1 | 2.7 | 2.7 | 2.7 | 2.2 | 2.5 | 2.4 | 2 |
| Humidity % | 91 | 87 | 82 | 78 | 77 | 71 | 64 | 63 | 69 | 79 | 88 | 90 |
Green temperatures mark months that meet the comfort rule (59–82°F, ≤5.9 in rain, ≤85% humidity). NASA POWER 2001–2020 climatology at the city coordinates.
Where can you stay in Clermont-Ferrand?
Three ways to live here, and what each does to the monthly budget. Rents are the one-bedroom figures from the cost table; hotels and short lets are priced per night and cost more, most of all in high season.
| Option | Rent per month | Monthly total | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-bedroom outside the centre | — | — | No city-level cost here; the total is a national estimate. |
| One-bedroom in the centre | — | — | No city-level rent figure for this city. |
| Hotel or short let | — | — | For the first weeks or a stay under a month. Compare hotels on Navoy → |
Monthly rents assume an unfurnished lease of six months or more; furnished monthly lets usually cost 20 to 50 percent more.
Cities with a similar profile
- Angers France · 64.7
- Rennes France · 64.8
- Saint-Étienne France · 63.9
- Metz France · 64.8
- Nantes France · 63.8
Also in Europe: A Coruña, Aachen, Aalborg, Aarhus, Aberdeen, Adana
The vibe
What people post about living in Clermont-Ferrand, read for its mood. It is a reading of opinions, not a fact, and it is not part of the score.
Mixed · 60Thin, mostly tourist-oriented content with a few locals and one arriving resident; the vibe is pleasant and understated, but there is little real talk about daily life for remote workers.
People praise
- historic old-town architecture
- local food and Auvergne specialties
- walkable, transit-connected city centre
- quiet, underrated charm
People warn about
- very little content on daily life
- no remarks on internet or remote-work setup
- limited nightlife or activity mentioned
- Pleasant, understated city that feels overlooked by tourists
- Good food scene centered on Auvergne dishes
- Content is sparse, so the picture of living there is incomplete
- Locals are proud of their city and its landmarks
Read from 6 videos, 22 comments and 0 posts on 2026-11-07; the summary is written by a language model and can misread sarcasm.
Frequently asked
- How much does it cost to live in Clermont-Ferrand as a digital nomad?
- A single person typically spends about $2,450 per month in Clermont-Ferrand (a country-level estimate for France). That is a 31/100 cost score, where 100 is the cheapest city in the dataset.
- Is Clermont-Ferrand safe for digital nomads?
- Clermont-Ferrand scores 68/100 on safety. France records 1.33 homicides per 100,000 people per year (WHO, 2024) and a political-stability score of 64/100 (World Bank WGI). Both figures are national, so neighbourhood-level risk can differ.
- Does France have a digital nomad visa?
- No dedicated digital nomad visa was listed for France as of 2026-07. Visitors from the US can stay 90 days visa-free.
- How fast is the internet in Clermont-Ferrand?
- Measured median download speed in Clermont-Ferrand was 61.3 Mbps (upload 60.4 Mbps) across 7,521 M-Lab tests in 2024. Measured speeds run below advertised plan speeds everywhere, so compare cities rather than reading the number as a plan.
- Is Starlink available in Clermont-Ferrand?
- Yes. Starlink's availability map lists residential service as available in France (checked 2026-10), so a dish can serve as a backup line in Clermont-Ferrand. Check the exact address on starlink.com before ordering, since capacity varies by area.
- Which airports serve Clermont-Ferrand and how many nonstop flights are there?
- Clermont-Ferrand is served by Clermont-Ferrand Auvergne Airport (CFE) with 7 nonstop destinations and Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS) with 142 nonstop destinations, 142 unique destinations across all of them, of which 120 are international. 0 US airports have a nonstop link. Source: Wikipedia, 2026-10.
- When is the best time of year to be in Clermont-Ferrand?
- The most comfortable months are Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep. Mean temperatures range from 35°F (2°C) in Jan to 68°F (20°C) in Jul (NASA POWER 2001–2020 climatology).
- Clermont-Ferrand or Angers: which is better for digital nomads?
- Angers is the city with the closest factor profile to Clermont-Ferrand in this dataset. Which one wins depends on your weights; the comparison page puts every factor side by side with the numbers behind them.
Sources
Dataset 2026.11.2, published 2026-11-09. Download the full dataset or read the methodology.
- 1.City population (latest census or official estimate), Wikipedia (citing national statistics offices). CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. City-proper figures; the per-city source URL is stored with the seed row.
- 2.2026 Cost of Living Index (country level), WhereNext. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Country-level monthly estimate used only where no city-level figure exists; cost_index kept for every city.
- 3.Cost of Living Global 2026 (city rows), WhereToEmigrate. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. monthly_cost_single_eur and rent_1br_center_eur, converted to USD at the ECB reference rate on the retrieval date (see ecb-frankfurter).
- 4.Victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 population (national data, latest year), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, dataUNODC. UNODC data, free to reuse with attribution. Retrieved 2026-10-12. Police- or statistics-office-recorded rates reported to UNODC's crime-trends survey, latest year per country (2024 for most), both sexes, all ages; the United Kingdom uses England and Wales. Replaces the WHO modelled estimate wherever UNODC has a figure from 2018 or later; WHO's 2021 estimates ran several times above recorded figures for El Salvador and Honduras. Workbook data_cts_intentional_homicide.xlsx (July 2026) reduced by scripts/build-dataset/inputs/convert-unodc-homicide.py.
- 5.Worldwide Governance Indicators — Political Stability and Absence of Violence (score 0–100), World Bank. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22.
- 6.UHC service coverage index, World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22.
- 7.Life expectancy at birth (years), both sexes, World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22.
- 8.M-Lab NDT statistics (city aggregates, 2024), Measurement Lab. CC0 1.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Median of daily median download/upload throughput over 2024 for the city aggregate; sample count is the number of tests. Speeds reflect user-initiated tests, not advertised plans.
- 9.Starlink availability map, SpaceX (Starlink). Factual status cited from starlink.com. Retrieved 2026-10-07. Residential service status per country from the file Starlink's map loads. Grouped as on the map: launched or available = available; coming soon, pending regulatory approval or test = coming soon; blacklisted = not offered; unknown or excluded = unknown. Shown on city pages and as a ranker filter; not part of any score. Roaming and maritime plans can work in more places.
- 10.Digital Nomad Visas 2026, WhereToEmigrate. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Programme name, minimum monthly income (EUR, converted to USD) and whether it leads to permanent residence. Values are directional; verify with the issuing government.
- 11.Passport Index dataset (visa requirements, 199 passports × 199 destinations), Ilya Ilyankou (compiled from passportindex.org). MIT. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Days per visit where stated; 'visa free' without a limit is credited as unlimited; eTA, visa on arrival, e-visa and visa required are credited 0 days for scoring but shown by kind. The default US/EU/UK figures use the US, German and British passports.
- 12.Airport destinations (Wikipedia airline and destination tables), Wikipedia contributors; countries via Wikidata. CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-24. Distinct destination airports listed in each airport article's passenger table, resolved through Wikidata. Seasonal routes count; charters and routes announced but not yet flying are excluded. The as-of date is the newest article revision among the city's airports. Falls back to the OpenFlights snapshot when an airport has no article or table.
- 13.Walkability and transit ratings (editorial), Navoy. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Judgment ratings, not measurements. Explained on /methodology.
- 14.NASA POWER climatology (2001–2020 monthly means), NASA Langley Research Center. Public domain (US Government). Retrieved 2026-09-22. T2M, PRECTOTCORR and RH2M at the city coordinates (0.5° grid). Monthly precipitation = mm/day × days in month.
- 15.WHO Ambient Air Quality Database, June 2026 update (V8), World Health Organization. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22. Annual mean PM2.5 for the most recent year available for the city.
- 16.OpenStreetMap restaurants (Overpass API), OpenStreetMap contributors. ODbL 1.0. Retrieved 2026-10-02. Count of OpenStreetMap elements tagged amenity=restaurant within 3 km of the city centre coordinate. Measures how many restaurants are mapped, which tracks real density well where OpenStreetMap is well maintained (Europe, the Americas, East and Southeast Asia) and under-counts where it is not (parts of Africa and Central Asia).
- 17.Human Development Index (HDR 2025, HDI 2023), United Nations Development Programme. CC BY 3.0 IGO. Retrieved 2026-09-22.
- 18.EF English Proficiency Index 2024 (band), EF Education First. Proprietary; band cited as a fact with attribution. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Only the proficiency band is stored, transcribed by hand from the public ranking.