From here.
This article pissed me off no end. South Africa is the third best place in the world to retire ? What an insult !
Anyway, as I'm objective and even post bad news I thought I would post this too. Scoff.
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.
Rank Nation
1 Thailand
2 Bahrain
3 South Africa
4 Canada
5 Bermuda
6 Spain
7 France
8 Switzerland
9 Australia
10 Malaysia
11 Philippines
12 Germany
13 Belgium
14 Singapore
15 Hong 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.
In conclusion I think it's safe to say the only reason we are not number 1 is that the expats in Thailand are so happy because they're all catered to as pedophiles and Bahrain ...well we all know about Bahrain we just don't talk about it. Wink.
3 comments:
yup, should be first, and the BEST tap water in the world....hey keith, tell us about that piano...
What are you on about tap water ? Is tap water your reason for hating South Africa ? I drink only from the tap and so does pretty much everyone I know. You need to travel a bit. That's not as common as you think.
Who the HELL would want to retire in Canada?
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