Methodology
How we grade
Every destination gets the same seven-factor review and a single letter grade — the way a guidebook would rate a hotel, not the way a spreadsheet would.
The seven factors
| Factor | What we look at |
|---|---|
| Cost of living | What a couple actually spends renting a comfortable one- to two-bedroom home, eating out several times a week, running a car or using transit, and carrying health insurance. |
| Healthcare | Quality and proximity of hospitals that can handle a cardiac event or cancer diagnosis — not just a check-up. Accreditation, English-speaking staff, and out-of-pocket costs. |
| Safety | Violent-crime levels, scams targeting foreigners, and how much daily vigilance the destination demands from a retiree. |
| Climate | Year-round comfort for someone in their 60s and 70s, including extreme heat, air quality, and natural-disaster exposure. |
| English friendliness | Whether you can see a doctor, sign a lease, and make friends without fluency in the local language. |
| Retiree community | The depth of existing expat-retiree infrastructure: clubs, volunteer scenes, and the informal support network that makes hard days easier. |
| Flight connectivity | How hard it is to get home for a grandchild's birthday or a medical procedure. |
The letter grade
The overall grade is a judgment, not an average. A destination with a fatal flaw for most retirees — no legal retirement visa, or healthcare that can't handle serious illness — is capped in the B range no matter how well it scores elsewhere, because those factors don't trade off against cheap rent.
A range: we'd recommend it to a typical retiring couple without hesitation. B range: excellent for the right person, with at least one significant trade-off to accept. C range: only for retirees with specific circumstances that neutralize its weaknesses.
Where the numbers come from
Visa requirements come from government and embassy publications; budgets are cross-checked against current rental listings and cost-of-living reports; healthcare assessments draw on hospital accreditation records and the experience of resident retiree communities. Every figure carries a review date, and every page says so: rules change, and no guide replaces verification with official sources.