As the year 2012 draws to a close, it’s natural to review the previous year and look forward to the next. If you’re planning to move abroad in 2013 one of the questions you’re probably asking yourself is, “where’s the best place in the world to retire overseas? Where will I have the best quality of life as an expat?”
Indexes and listings are helpful tools, but they’re only a place to start.
Eveyone’s idea of quality of life varies — my idea of heaven is the tropics, but the heat and humidity might be your idea of hell. So it’s important to dig a little to find out what’s being measured behind the scenes to go into that index.
With that said, here’s a recap.
Best Five Locations for Overseas Retirement
In an article yesterday, Kathleen Peddicord, publisher of Live & Invest Overseas, named her top five picks for overseas retirement in 2013. She fine tuned her recommendations, naming not just the country but the specific city or region:
- Coronado, Panama
- Languedoc, France
- Ambergris Caye, Belize
- Cuenca, Ecuador
- Chiang Mai, Thailand
Best Quality of Life Cities
Numbeo.com maintains a database which they update frequently. Here’s what it looked like for the end of 2012:
- Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Berlin, Germany
- Adelaide, Australia
- Austin, TX, USA
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Doha, Qatar
- Hamburg, Germany
- Houston, TX, USA
- Trondheim, Norway
- Boston, MA, USA
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Chicago, IL, USA
- Dubai, UAE
- Calgary, Alberta, Canada
- Capetown, South Africa
Mercer.com also publishes a city list, but this one’s very Europe-centric.
Mercer gathers its data from companies which are sending employees to work overseas. Their criteria are therefore different from what the average retiree or portable careerist is looking for in a top overseas home location.
- Vienna, Austria
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Auckland, New Zealand
- Munich, Germany
- Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Dusseldorf, Germany
- Frankfurt, Germany
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Bern, Switzerland
- Sydney, Australia
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Wellington, New Zealand
- Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- Toronta, Ontario, Canada
Mercer has also created rankings for infrstructure. While not exactly a quality of life issue, it’s an indication of a country’s propserity and its willingness to fund public works projects.
- Singapore
- Frankfurt, Germany
- Munich, Germany
- Denmark, Copenhagen
- Dusseldorf, Germany
- Hong Kong
- London, UK
- Sydney, Australia
- Hamburg, Germany
- Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Yokohama, Japan
The Economist Magazine looks at the best cities for doing business.
- New York
- London
- Singapore
- Hong Kong
- Paris
- Geneva
- Sydney
- Montreal
- Dublin
- Taipei
Depending on why you’re moving overseas — whether to retire, to run a business, or to work as an employee for a multinational company — you’ll find the different lists more or less helpful.
Here’s to a happy and successful expat life in 2013!
Hi. Thanks for the list. I plan to look up Languedoc especially. Does anybody has info on retiring in South America? I am thi king especially of Satiago Chile.
Thanks.
Laraine
What an excellent site! I’ve only just discovered it. My recommendation is for enquirers such as Laraine to seek as many personal opinions as she can. I posted two short essays on my blog last September under the title “Looking for Bolt-holes”, and there must be plenty more who do something similar. If you haven’t lived outside your homeland before, it is a huge, huge decision to pick up sticks and move out for the first time – especially if you are not in the first bloom of youth.
You’ve done it well of posting the best locations to retire overseas.Do you have any descriptions about the five locations.So retirees can choose what fits their needs. Thank you for posting here.
Retirement and Good Living just released its 2013 selections for best places to retire overseas at retirementandgoodliving.com/best-retirement-locations-abroad-2013/
also the best US retirement locations
retirementandgoodliving.com/best-retirement-locations-in-the-us-2013/
Thanks for pointing this out, Carly. It would have been helpful if they had explained their reasons for picking those cities.