If you’re thinking about retiring abroad, you have plenty to consider, from tax implications and collecting Social Security benefits to language barriers and unfamiliar laws and customs — but the most important consideration of all is the city where you’ll start your new life.
To help you get started in your search, GOBankingRates researched both the cost and quality of life in hundreds of the world’s cities. What you learn can help you scratch undesirable metros off your shortlist and zero in on your perfect new home away from home .
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Countries Ranked By the Cost of Daily Life
Mercer, a global consulting firm with operations in 130 countries, recently released its Cost of Living City Ranking 2024 . Mercer analyzed the impact of inflation on 226 cities across the world, which the study ranked according to the living expenses retirees can expect to encounter should they move there.
Unless you have a rock star nest egg, you probably can’t afford those at the top of the list. For example, the world’s six most expensive cities — Hong Kong, Singapore, Zurich, Geneva, and Basel and Bern, Switzerland — are more expensive than New York.
On the other end of the spectrum are dirt-cheap cities like Abuja and Lagos, Nigeria and Islamabad, Pakistan, but retiring in distant and volatile countries is neither plausible nor advisable for most retirees.
To winnow down the list, GOBankingRates omitted all U.S. cities and the cities in countries that hold an official Level 3 or Level 4 Travel Advisory warning.
In the State Department’s four-tier system, Level 1 means “exercise normal precautions,” and Level 2 means “exercise increased caution.”
Level 3 and Level 4 countries are probably not places most Americans would feel comfortable retiring in, at least not now. They correspond to “reconsider travel” and “do not travel” warnings, respectively.
A country can earn a Level 3 or Level 4 advisory with travel deterrents like the arbitrary enforcement of laws, the risk of wrongful detention, limited healthcare availability, political instability, a high likelihood of terrorism or armed conflict, hostility toward Americans, civil unrest and an elevated threat of kidnapping or violent crime.
This list also omits blended-advisory countries like Mexico, where the State Department deems some regions or cities safe but issues Level 3 or Level 4 advisories in much of the rest of the country.
A cheap place to retire isn’t necessarily a good place to retire.
To expand beyond living costs, we included each city’s quality of life index rating from Numbeo , a database of global living statistics and studies. The index assigns numerical values to factors like purchasing power, safety, health care, climate, living costs, property-price-to-income ratio, commute times and pollution. The index then averages the combined category scores to come up with an overall number that represents each city’s general quality of life.
The maximum score is 240, but anything approaching 200 is considered excellent.
Scores from roughly 145 and up represent a high quality of life.
Scores from roughly 120 to 145 represent a moderate quality of life.
If you choose a city with scores under 120, you should expect to make some difficult life-quality sacrifices in your new home city.
The following list ranks cities by region in ascending order from the least expensive to the costliest, so keep an eye out for affordable cities early in the list with high quality-of-life index ratings — those are the gems where life is cheap and good at the same time.
I retired to a small town in the Philippines. Half the cost of living in the US. My 2 br reinforced concrete apartment in a gated community is $280 per month. A home doctor's visit is $10 and a dental crown is $200, both without insurance. The people are friendly, most speak English and the beaches and flora are outstanding.
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