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Retirement trends

A range of countries have this year been highlighted as the most popular retirement destinations, as voted by expats, with India (11%), UK (11%), Australia (8%), the USA (8%) and Canada (7%) topping the list.

The biggest drivers behind choosing an ideal retirement location for expats is quality of life (62%), having family in the country (57%) and the weather (50%). Retiring in a tax efficient location, while not a key factor behind destination choices, is more important to higher earners (19%) than the general expat population (14%).

While many expats (43%) will choose to return to their home country for retirement, a third (32%) are looking to retire in the country where they currently reside, but this increases dramatically for those who have lived in their destination for a longer period of time. On average, one in ten (13%) expats who have lived in their host country for less than three years want to retire there, but this figure shoots up to 38% for those that have resided in their host country for over three years.

Despite the UK and India being reported as the most popular ideal retirement destinations according to expats, France and Spain continue to dominate as the actual expat retiree hotspots. Two in five (41%) respondents living in France are retirees alongside a third in Spain (32%), compared to only 9% of expats overall.

Graph – Drivers behind an ideal retirement location

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