Retiring abroad/Table

This table provides some background information for our article on Retiring abroad.

Only approximate

This article was created in 2014 and is not often updated. It may not be entirely accurate today, and is certainly not complete; it is intended only as a general overview.
For anything you are seriously concerned about, you should do your own more detailed research.

It was started from Wikipedia's List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita which gives four sets of estimates from various sources. Only one, the UN estimate, is used here. It is shown in the GDP column, in US $. The 30 most expensive countries have been removed.

The Global Peace Index (dead link: January 2023) gives numeric scores, of peace levels, where 1.0 would be ideal and a higher score indicates problems. In the 2017 data for 163 countries, the seventeen best scores are between 1.1 and 1.5 while the thirteen worst are between 3.0 and 3.8. The table shows 2013 scores in the GPI column. A few of the most dangerous countries have been removed.

The Social Progress Index tries to measure the overall level of good living for a population, using a 0-100 scale. In the 2014 results for 132 countries, the six lowest scores were in the 30s and the top 23 were in the 80s. Some of these scores are in the SPI column.

The next two columns indicate whether the country offers a retirement visa and if so, funds required, amounts in US $:

• Monthly: amount needed.
• Deposit: lump sum needed up front

Some retirees should check the legal status of activities they might engage in. The Wikivoyage articles on LGBT travel and Cannabis and Wikipedia on prostitution laws are starting points for some issues. However for anything that is a serious concern you should do your own more detailed research.

Table

Note that you can sort the table on any column, in ascending or descending order, by clicking on the little arrows in the column header.

This table is just for preliminarily finding interesting countries. You should check legal and economic issues by yourself before choosing where to go – they might have changed, and there may be specifics relevant to you.