Connect with us

Money

Ranked: The Best Countries to Retire In

Published

on

best countries to retire in 2022

Can I share this graphic?
Yes. Visualizations are free to share and post in their original form across the web—even for publishers. Please link back to this page and attribute Visual Capitalist.
When do I need a license?
Licenses are required for some commercial uses, translations, or layout modifications. You can even whitelabel our visualizations. Explore your options.
Interested in this piece?
Click here to license this visualization.

Ranked: The Best Countries to Retire in Around the World

Our global population is getting older. By 2050, the OECD predicts that 30% of people worldwide will be aged 65 or over.

While some countries are relatively prepared to handle this increase in the elderly demographic, others are already feeling the squeeze and struggling with the challenges that come with a rapidly aging population.

Which countries are the best equipped to support their senior citizens? This graphic uses data from the 2022 Natixis Global Retirement Index to show the best countries to retire in around the world, based on several different factors that we’ll dig into below.

What Makes a Country Retirement-Friendly?

When people consider what makes a place an ideal retirement location, it’s natural to think about white sand beaches, hot climates, and endless sunny days. And, in truth, the right net worth opens up a world of opportunity of where to enjoy one’s golden years.

The Global Retirement Index (GRI) examines retirement from different, more quantitative perspective. The annual report looks at 44 different countries and ranks them based on their retirement security. The index considers 18 factors, which are grouped into four overarching categories:

  • Health: Health spend per capita, life expectancy, and non-insured health spend.
  • Quality of Life: Happiness levels, water and sanitation, air quality, other environmental factors, and biodiversity/habitat.
  • Material Wellbeing: Income per capita, income equality, and employment levels.
  • Finances in Retirement: Government debt, old-age dependency, interest rates, inflation, governance, tax pressure, and bank non-performing loans.

Using these 18 metrics, a score from 0.01 to 1 is determined for each country, which is then converted to a percentage. For a more detailed explanation of the report’s methodology, explore Appendix A (page 72) of the report.

The Top 25 Best Countries to Retire in

With an overall score of 81%, Norway comes in at number one as the most retirement-friendly country on the list.

RankCountryScoreHealthQuality
of Life
Material
Wellbeing
Finances in
Retirement
1🇳🇴 Norway81%91%87%79%69%
2🇨🇭 Switzerland80%90%86%69%74%
3🇮🇸 Iceland79%88%86%77%68%
4🇮🇪 Ireland76%89%80%67%70%
5🇦🇺 Australia75%88%77%66%72%
6🇳🇿 New Zealand75%85%81%64%71%
7🇱🇺 Luxembourg75%91%81%72%59%
8🇳🇱 Netherlands75%89%80%78%56%
9🇩🇰 Denmark74%86%88%76%54%
10🇨🇿 Czech Republic73%76%68%84%64%
11🇩🇪 Germany72%87%80%71%55%
12🇫🇮 Finland71%84%89%63%55%
13🇸🇪 Sweden71%90%87%59%56%
14🇦🇹 Austria71%86%82%69%54%
15🇨🇦 Canada71%87%74%58%67%
16🇮🇱 Israel70%82%74%60%66%
17🇰🇷 South Korea70%80%59%68%73%
18🇺🇸 United States69%85%72%56%67%
19🇬🇧 United Kingdom69%83%82%61%55%
20🇧🇪 Belgium69%85%74%70%51%
21🇸🇮 Slovenia69%82%69%77%51%
22🇯🇵 Japan69%91%67%72%51%
23🇲🇹 Malta68%78%61%72%63%
24🇫🇷 France66%90%78%57%48%
25🇪🇪 Estonia66%68%68%60%68%

Norway is at the top of this year’s ranking for several reasons. For starters, it achieved the highest score in the Health category, largely because of its high average life expectancy, which is 83 years old, or 9 years longer than the global average.

Norway also has the highest score of all the countries for Governance, a category gauged by assessing country corruption levels, political stability, and government effectiveness, and is in a three-way tie with Japan and Luxembourg in the Health category.

Second on the list is another European country, Switzerland, with an overall score of 80%. It’s the highest-ranked country for environmental factors, and it also has the highest overall score in the Finances in Retirement category.

A Regional Breakdown

While European countries dominate the top 10 in the ranking, how does Europe rank as a region as a whole? Before diving in, it’s important to note that the study actually breaks up Europe into two sections: Eastern Europe (grouped with Central Asia) and Western Europe.

RankRegionOverall Score
1North America69%
2Western Europe66%
3Eastern Europe and Central Asia49%
4Latin America37%
5Asia Pacific32%

And from a regional perspective, North America comes in first place despite the fact no countries in the region made it into the top 10. North America only has two countries included in the ranking: Canada (#15) and the U.S. (#18), which both rank relatively high.

In contrast, Western and Eastern Europe have more countries to account for, which ultimately lowers their regional average.

The Future of Retirement

As longevity rises and the retirement aged population continues to increase worldwide, many countries are opting to change their pension policies in an effort to encourage people to stay in the workforce longer.

For instance, in 2018, people in the UK could claim their State Pension once they turned 65. By 2028, this age requirement will be raised to 67.

However, government intervention may not be necessary, as many people around the world are already staying in the workforce beyond the traditional retirement age (perhaps more out of necessity than choice).

Click for Comments

Money

Visualizing All of the U.S. Currency in Circulation

This graphic illustrates the amount of U.S. currency in circulation globally, by denomination, based on data from the Federal Reserve.

Published

on

Visualizing All of the U.S. Currency in Circulation

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Have you ever wondered how much U.S. currency is in circulation?

Every year, the U.S. Federal Reserve submits a print order for U.S. currency to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP). The BEP will then print billions of notes in various denominations, from $1 bills to $100 bills.

In this graphic, we’ve used the latest Federal Reserve data to visualize the approximate number of bills for each denomination globally, as of Dec. 31, 2022.

Breakdown of U.S. Currency in Circulation

The following table lists all of the data we used to create the visualization above. Note that value figures were rounded for simplicity.

Type of BillNumber of notes
in circulation (billions)
Value ($B)
$114.3$14B
$21.5$3B
$53.5$18B
$102.3$23B
$2011.5$230B
$502.5$125B
$10018.5$1,850B
$500-10,000*0.0004n/a

*$500-10,000 bills are listed as a range, and a total circulation of 0.0004 billion. Not included in graphic.

From these numbers, we can see that $100 bills are the most common bill in circulation, even ahead of $1 bills.

One reason for this is $100 bills have a longer lifespan than smaller denominations, due to people using $100 bills less often for transactions. Some businesses may also decline $100 bills as payment.

Based on 2018 estimates from the Federal Reserve, a $100 bill has a lifespan of over 20 years, which is significantly higher than $1 bills (7 years) and $5 bills (5 years).

If you’re interested in more visualizations on the U.S. dollar, consider this animated chart which shows how the dollar overtook the British pound as the world’s most prominent reserve currency.

Continue Reading

Subscribe

Popular