25 November, 2010

The best countries to retire to

With the weather turning icy, thoughts begin to turn to sunnier climes, not just for the Christmas period but for life generally.
The number of Brits trying life abroad has grown significantly over the past few decades — there are more than a million Brits living abroad, according to the Institute for Public Policy research.
And it's not just students taking a year out to 'discover' themselves making pots in a shack in Peru, but older Brits too. According to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, an extraordinary 38% of over-55s are planning to relocate in the next few years.
So if you fancy retiring somewhere abroad, which countries should top your wishlist?
Quality of life
HSBC Bank International has recently published parts of its Expat Explorer Survey, encompassing the views of more than 3,000 expats across more than 100 countries to find which nation performs best in various different areas.
And it found a clear correlation between those countries that offer a great quality of life to all expats, and that nation's popularity among silver expats — those looking for a new country for their twilight years.
But what does quality of life actually mean? The survey took into account a range of features, including the following:
  • accommodation,
  • food/diet,
  • entertainment,
  • healthcare,
  • work life balance,
  • social life,
  • commute to work,
  • opportunities for sports
  • opportunities for travel,
  • the ease of organising schools for their children,
  • the ease of learning the language,
  • how easy to make friends,
  • healthcare and utilities,
  • weather,
  • how easy to fit into the new culture/lifestyle.
The top nations
With that in mind, below are the top 15 ranking nations for overall quality of life according to the Expat Explorer Survey.
RankNation
1Thailand
2Bahrain
3South Africa
4Canada
5Bermuda
6Spain
7France
8Switzerland
9Australia
10Malaysia
11Philippines
12Germany
13Belgium
14Singapore
15Hong Kong
Some of the top-performing nations boast extraordinarily large numbers of retirees among their expats — in Spain, just shy of 40% of all expats are retirees, while France (33%), South Africa (24%), Thailand (24%) and Canada (17%) also boast a large proportion of retired expats.
Perhaps a touch worryingly, the UK finished 23rd in the survey, behind nations like Qatar and Mexico, but just ahead of Russia and India. And you can't blame that entirely on the weather.
If you can't make your mind up on which nation you'd like to retire to, why not have a read of Ditch Britain for somewhere better!


6 comments:

Roy said...

LOOK AT THE PHILIPPINES ... still the best place for the best people in the world...

Iván [SKYL] said...

dont even think in Mexico! haha
just kidding...

Diamond R said...

pag retirement na ang pinaguusapan kailangan na itong pag isipan. at least ang bansang Pilipinas pasok diyan lalo na ang mga probinsiya. parang nahiya naman ako sa dream place kong UK. anyway for winter experience lang naman ang gusto ko. pag nilamig na seguro biglang uwi na sa pinas. ang buhay ng naman masalimoot.

mattscradle said...

Hi just want to share the article that I've written on my blog. It is very much related to this post of yours its called Best places to live in the world. Enjoy :-).

Roh said...

napasama pa pala ang philippines dito ^^

Bino said...

this proves na philippines is still one of the best countries in the world

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