Skip to content
ThonRetire

Quotable answers

Retirement questions, answered with sources

14 questions people actually ask about retiring abroad. Each answer carries the figure, the month it was verified and the authority that issued it, so it can be quoted on its own without losing what makes it checkable. Everything here is generated from the same dataset the site runs on — nothing on this page is typed by hand.

Free to quote, including commercially, with credit and a link. Download the dataset · how we treat AI crawlers

Cite this page

Nguyễn Thành Dân (2026). ThonRetire Retirement Destination Dataset 2026, v1.3. Verified July 2026. https://thonretire.com/data — CC-BY-4.0

Dataset last verified July 2026 · source registry checked Aug 2026 · 66 linked authority pages across these answers

What is the cheapest country to retire in?

On the ThonRetire Retirement Index 2026, the cheapest of 17 ranked destinations for a retired couple are Vietnam ($1,400), Philippines ($1,500) and Mexico ($1,700) per month, all-in on rent, food, utilities and transport in the city foreign retirees actually settle in. Figures verified July 2026.

#WhatFigureThe trade-off
1Vietnam$1,400Near-unattainable
2Philippines$1,500Permanent
3Mexico$1,7004 yrs
4Indonesia (Bali)$1,700KITAP 3–4 yrs
5Thailand$1,800Difficult

What the figure does not say A monthly run rate excludes the two costs that move most between these countries: private health cover priced at your current age rather than at forty, and the one-off cost of getting legally established, which runs from a few hundred dollars of e-visa fees to five figures of deposits and agent work. It also excludes currency drift, which is slower and larger than both.

Sources behind this answer · data verified Jul 2026

Full ranking: cheapest·How the figure is built

Which country has the best healthcare for retirees abroad?

Rated on the care a foreign resident can actually obtain — not on national health systems in the abstract — the ThonRetire Retirement Index 2026 puts Spain (9/10), Portugal (9/10) and Malta (8.8/10) at the top of 17 destinations.

#WhatFigureThe trade-off
1Spain9/10$2,500/mo
2Portugal9/10$2,600/mo
3Malta8.8/10$2,600/mo
4Malaysia8.7/10$1,900/mo
5Italy8.6/10$2,400/mo

What the figure does not say A country can run an excellent public system that a foreign retiree is locked out of for five years, and that lockout is what matters to you. Joining a public system almost always requires legal residency, so a fragile visa route makes a strong healthcare position fragile too.

Sources behind this answer · data verified Jul 2026

Full ranking: best healthcare·How the figure is built

What is the safest country to retire abroad?

Rated on ordinary daily safety for an older foreign resident rather than on national crime statistics, the ThonRetire Retirement Index 2026 ranks UAE (Dubai) (8.8/10), Portugal (8.5/10) and Malta (8.4/10) highest of 17 destinations.

#WhatFigureThe trade-off
1UAE (Dubai)8.8/10$3,500/mo
2Portugal8.5/10$2,600/mo
3Malta8.4/10$2,600/mo
4Cyprus8.3/10$2,200/mo
5Spain8.2/10$2,500/mo

What the figure does not say This measures physical safety, not legal or political risk, and the two frequently run in opposite directions: several of the physically safest places here run the least forgiving legal systems for foreigners. Natural exposure — seismic, cyclone, flood — is also outside the rating, because it lands on your house rather than on your person.

Sources behind this answer · data verified Jul 2026

Full ranking: safest·How the figure is built

Which country has the lowest tax on a foreign pension?

On the headline rate applied to foreign pension income for a tax resident, the ThonRetire Retirement Index 2026 ranks Panama (0%), Philippines (0%) and Costa Rica (0%) lowest of 17 destinations. Where a country quotes a band we rank it at the midpoint, not at the floor.

#WhatFigureThe trade-off
1Panama0%no clock
2Philippines0%no clock
3Costa Rica0%no clock
4UAE (Dubai)0%no clock
5Thailand0%12 yrs left

What the figure does not say A headline rate is not a tax bill. It covers pension income only — investment income, capital gains, rental income and your estate are each governed by separate rules that often move the other way. Several of the lowest figures belong to promotional regimes with an expiry date rather than to permanent features of a tax code, and your own tax authority gets a vote regardless: American citizens keep filing at home whatever this column says.

Sources behind this answer · data verified Aug 2026

Full ranking: lowest tax·How the figure is built

Which country gives retirees permanent residency most easily?

Ranked on where the route actually leads rather than on how fast the first permit is granted, the ThonRetire Retirement Index 2026 puts Panama (Immediate), Uruguay (Direct — <1 yr) and Philippines (Permanent) at the head of 17 destinations.

#WhatFigureThe trade-off
1PanamaImmediate$2,100/mo
2UruguayDirect — <1 yr$2,300/mo
3PhilippinesPermanent$1,500/mo
4Costa Rica3 yrs$2,000/mo
5Mexico4 yrs$1,700/mo

What the figure does not say Easy to enter and easy to stay are different questions, and they often point at different countries: a three-week retirement visa that never becomes permanent is worse than a nine-month application that hands you permanent residency at year five. Permanent residency is also not citizenship — it can usually be lost by spending too long outside the country.

Sources behind this answer · data verified Jul 2026

Full ranking: easiest residency·How the figure is built

Which retirement destinations are closest to home?

Measured as realistic door-to-door flying time including the connection most people actually take, the nearest of 17 destinations are Indonesia (Bali) (6h), Philippines (8h) and Malaysia (8h). This is the one ranking on the ThonRetire Retirement Index 2026 that changes with your passport rather than with the country.

#WhatFigureThe trade-off
1Indonesia (Bali)6h$1,700/mo
2Philippines8h$1,500/mo
3Malaysia8h$1,900/mo
4Vietnam8h$1,400/mo
5Thailand9h$1,800/mo

What the figure does not say Flying hours do not carry time zone, and for families that often matters more: a destination eight hours away but nine hours out of phase leaves a two-hour daily window where both ends are awake. Nor do hours carry route price or frequency — a short flight on a monopoly route can cost more than a long one into a competitive hub, and a route with one carrier is a route that can be cut.

Sources behind this answer · data verified Jul 2026

Full ranking: closest to home·How the figure is built

Is a country-level cost of living figure accurate for a specific city?

Usually not. Comparing 62 cities against the country figures published for the same 17 countries, the ThonRetire Retirement Index 2026 finds a median gap of 16.5% between a city's real budget and its national headline, with 26 of 62 cities off by 20% or more. The wider finding is that within a single country the most expensive city typically costs 43% more than the cheapest, so the national average is not describing any place that exists.

#WhatFigureThe trade-off
1Abruzzo (Sulmona, Pescara hinterland)-40.0%furthest below its national figure (Italy)
2Limassol+41.0%furthest above its national figure (Cyprus)
314 of 62 citieswithin 5%the national figure is a fair guide for these, and only these

What the figure does not say Both layers being compared here are our own, and both are the midpoint of a budget range rather than a population survey — this is two layers of one dataset disagreeing, not us catching someone else out. What it establishes is the size of the error you inherit by planning from any country-level figure, including ours.

Sources behind this answer · data verified Jul 2026

Full finding, all rows·Download the city table

Can Americans retire in Vietnam?

Americans can live in Vietnam, but ThonRetire does not treat it as a retirement-visa destination. No dedicated retiree visa. A comfortable single-retiree budget is about $1,400 a month on the ThonRetire Retirement Index 2026, verified July 2026. SS RESTRICTED — exception + embassy check-ins. Original Medicare does not pay abroad. 2015 treaty signed, never in force.

#WhatFigureThe trade-off
1Monthly living cost, single retiree$1,400comfortable band, not a backpacker floor
2Retiree visaNo dedicated retiree visa90-day e-visa cycles are the stay, not a path
3US Social Security in VietnamrestrictedSS RESTRICTED — exception + embassy check-ins

What the figure does not say Forbes added Vietnam to its 31 July 2026 abroad-retirement list because living costs are low. That list does not score a visa, a Social Security restriction, or whether a Vietnamese bank will open an account for someone on tourist status. Seasonal months and building an estate are different questions, and only the second one needs a lawful long-stay route that Vietnam does not currently publish.

Sources behind this answer · data verified Jul 2026

Vietnam dossier·American overlay·Vietnam vs Thailand

Does international health insurance cover a nursing home abroad?

No. ThonRetire has read the policy documents of 2 international health insurers and quotes 5 clauses from them verbatim, with page numbers, checked August 2026: residential, custodial and nursing-home care is placed outside the benefit in every one. In 2 of those 5 the exclusion is not in the exclusions list at all — it is written into what the policy means by "hospital", so it survives a rewrite of the exclusions. US Medicare does not travel either. The clauses are reproduced at https://thonretire.com/care.

#WhatFigureThe trade-off
1SafetyWing — Nomad Insurance — General Exclusion 34p. 32listed as a general exclusion, which an insurer can revise at the next edition
2SafetyWing — Nomad Insurance — Definitions — Hospitalp. 35written into a definition, which is the harder half of a contract to reword
3SafetyWing — Nomad Insurance — Definitions — Extended Care Facilityp. 35written into a definition, which is the harder half of a contract to reword
4Cigna Global — Health Options — General Exclusion 9p. 15listed as a general exclusion, which an insurer can revise at the next edition
5Cigna Global — Health Options — General Exclusion 15(c)p. 15listed as a general exclusion, which an insurer can revise at the next edition

What the figure does not say Two of the insurers quoted here are ones ThonRetire earns a referral fee from, and the clauses are printed anyway; that is the only reason this block is worth quoting. What it does not establish is what happens next: who regulates elder care where you are going, whether the public system pays for any of it, and what it costs. ThonRetire has opened a primary source for 14 of 17 countries so far, and found no government body publishing a monthly cost figure in any of them, so no cost table is published here. Opening a source is also not the same as finding a searchable register: outside Southeast Asia the same pattern holds where we opened sources this round: Spain's Ley 39/2006 and Dubai's DHA long-term-care standards name who licenses without yielding a national searchable home list; Mexico's INAPAM report names supervision under LDPAM, not a public register. Italy and Panama stay unchecked because official pages did not open cleanly. A policy is also read at a point in time and reissued on the insurer's own schedule, so the page number is part of the claim, not decoration.

Sources behind this answer · data verified Aug 2026

The clauses, in full·Why no cost table·Malaysia care sources·Spain care sources·Dubai care sources·Mexico care sources·Vietnam care sources

Will my state pension still go up each year if I retire abroad?

It depends on the passport, not the destination — and the seven passports ThonRetire covers are answered differently. ThonRetire has opened the paying authority's own page for each and quotes 17 passages verbatim, 4 of them with page numbers, checked August 2026. A UK State Pension is frozen at the rate you left on unless you live in the EEA, Gibraltar, Switzerland or an agreement country — with Canada and New Zealand expressly carved out. Canadian Old Age Security is reviewed against the Consumer Price Index four times a year and does not fall when prices fall. A US benefit is calculated in dollars and is not adjusted for exchange rates. The passages are reproduced at https://thonretire.com/from/uk#pension and the six sibling hubs.

#WhatFigureThe trade-off
1British state pensionFrozen at the rate you left on, unless you live in the EEA, Gibraltar, Switzerland or a country with a UK social security agreement — and Canada and New Zealand are expressly carved out of that listThe freeze is not permanent in one direction: GOV.UK states the pension goes up to the current rate if you return to live in the UK.
2American state pensionCalculated in US dollars and not adjusted for exchange rates — the currency risk sits entirely with youThis is the opposite failure mode to the UK freeze. The dollar amount keeps its annual adjustment; what moves against you is the exchange rate into the currency you actually spend.
3Canadian state pensionReviewed every January, April, July and October against the Consumer Price Index — and the rate does not fall when the CPI fallsThis is the mirror image of the British rule, and the contrast is the whole reason both cells sit on the same page. The Canadian page attaches no residence condition to the adjustment; the British page attaches one to its own. We are describing what each publisher wrote, not what either legislature intended.

What the figure does not say A frozen pension is not a one-off cut; it is a gap that widens for every year you live, which is why it belongs next to a spend-down plan rather than in a country ranking — and nothing in this layer feeds ThonRetire's country scores, because a pension rule is a fact about a passport and not a demerit for a destination. ThonRetire has sourced 22 of 42 cells across 7 passports; the annual-increase question specifically is still unsourced for 4 of 7 of them, and those 4 are printed on the site as named gaps rather than filled from memory. Quotations are kept in the language they were published in — German and French as well as English — because translating a quotation turns it into paraphrase. This is a description of published rules, not advice about where to draw a pension.

Sources behind this answer · data verified Aug 2026

The UK freeze, in full·The same question on a German passport

How much does a frozen state pension actually cost over a retirement?

Far more than the first year shows, and a monthly budget cannot see it at all. On the day you arrive, a pension that keeps rising and one held at the rate you left on pay exactly the same amount, so every cost-of-living comparison — ThonRetire's own included — is blind to the difference until years have passed. ThonRetire therefore runs both branches side by side on every country page. Worked example, every input stated: a $2,000-a-month pension, $250,000 of liquid assets and $2,400 a month of spending from age 66, costs rising 3% a year, assets returning 4%, and tax held out of both branches so the gap is the freeze alone. By age 90 the frozen pension is $2,066 a month lower, $275,022 of pension has gone unreceived across 25 years, and the frozen branch runs the liquid assets down to zero at age 90 while the uprated branch still holds $380,888 at 90 — at least 1 year of runway gone, and the projection runs out of years before it can say how many more. Which branch applies to you is a fact about your passport rather than your destination — a UK State Pension is frozen at the rate you left on unless you live in the EEA, Gibraltar, Switzerland or an agreement country. Pension rules checked August 2026; the projection is published as a scenario, not a forecast, and not as advice.

#WhatFigureThe trade-off
1Monthly gap by age 90$2,066/mosame person, same pension, one rule applying and not applying
2Pension unreceived over 25 years$275,022cumulative on the stated example, after tax
3Liquid assets left at 90$380,888 vs $0rising pension against frozen pension, one shared scale
4Runway lost to the freeze≥ 1 yeara floor, not a measurement — the uprated branch never runs out inside the projection, so the true distance is larger

What the figure does not say The arithmetic is ThonRetire's own, not any government's, and it carries three things it cannot model. Exchange rates are held flat, which for a pension paid in one currency and spent in another is larger than everything else on this list combined. Assets return a flat rate with no bad decade in it. And ThonRetire has deliberately not decided which of its 17 destinations leave a given pension rising and which freeze it: that rule is written by the authority that pays, the annual-increase question is sourced for 3 of 7 passports so far, and the rest are printed as named gaps rather than filled from memory. So both branches are printed and the reader matches themselves to the sourced rule. What the block establishes is the distance between the two lines over time, not the position of either line on its own.

Sources behind this answer · data verified Aug 2026

The projection, on a country page·The rule that decides which branch

Where does ThonRetire's retirement data come from?

Every statutory figure on ThonRetire carries its own source and its own verification month rather than a single site-wide "last updated" date. 612 statutory facts across 17 countries sit behind the ThonRetire Retirement Index 2026, each pointing at the issuing authority — the immigration ministry for visa thresholds, the revenue authority for tax rates — and each on a re-check clock set by how fast that kind of fact moves. Our own indices are labelled as ours and are not attributed to any ministry.

#WhatFigureThe trade-off
1Statutory facts, each separately dated612across 17 countries
2Distinct source groups behind them36about 17 facts confirmed per source visit
3Source visits committed per year1392.7 a week — a schedule one person can hold

What the figure does not say Three source types are kept apart deliberately, and the boundary is the whole point. Official means the issuing authority's own page with a URL you can open. Secondary means real and statutory but not yet traced to a primary page — foreign ownership and forced heirship sit in civil codes rather than on immigration portals. Thon means our own estimate or index, which is the category most retirement sites quietly file under a government name.

Sources behind this answer · data verified Jul 2026

Method and scoring·What we commit to re-check

How current is ThonRetire's data, and what happens when it goes stale?

The dataset behind the ThonRetire Retirement Index 2026 was last verified July 2026, at version 1.3. Facts are not all on one clock: each one carries a volatility class and a re-check window. Past one window a figure is shown with a "verifying" label; past two windows ThonRetire hides the number entirely and shows the official source instead. Nothing on the site is currently past two windows.

#WhatFigureThe trade-off
1Visa thresholds, fees, tax rates3 mo255 facts · first hidden 2027-02
2Costs, premiums, processing times6 mo238 facts · first hidden 2027-08
3Flight times, ownership rights24 mo119 facts · first hidden 2030-08

What the figure does not say Hiding a number costs us the page, which is exactly why the rule is worth stating: every other retirement comparison keeps showing the old figure because a blank looks bad. If we stopped work today, 251 figures would go dark in 2027-02 — a date anyone can come back and check. Note also that pages are prerendered, so the freshness label reflects the last build, which is why rebuild cadence is part of the mechanism rather than an operational detail.

Sources behind this answer · data verified Jul 2026

Dated changelog·The frozen edition

Can I cite or reuse ThonRetire's data?

Yes. ThonRetire Retirement Destination Dataset 2026 is published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY-4.0) as CSV and JSON. Use it anywhere, including commercially. The only condition is that you credit ThonRetire and link back. A frozen, hash-sealed edition is published at https://thonretire.com/edition/2026 so a citation keeps resolving to the exact figures it was written about, with the permanent identifier https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21817351. Cite as: Nguyễn Thành Dân (2026). ThonRetire Retirement Destination Dataset 2026, v1.3. Verified July 2026. https://thonretire.com/data — CC-BY-4.0

#WhatFigureThe trade-off
1LicenceCC-BY-4.0Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
2Machine-readable filesCSV + JSONCORS enabled, served with a licence header
3Sealed edition 2026DOI issuedhttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21817351

What the figure does not say The frozen edition and the live site will diverge, and that is intentional rather than a defect. The live pages carry the current figures; the edition carries what was true on the day it was sealed, with a sha256 over its own contents so any later change is detectable. If you are quoting a number in something dated, quote the edition. If you are deciding where to move, read the live page.

Sources behind this answer · data verified Jul 2026

Download the dataset·How we handle AI crawlers

Not here?

These 14 are the questions our own dataset can answer without reaching. If you need a figure we do not publish, the raw files are free to take — CSV and JSON under CC BY 4.0 — and the method page says how each column is built. If a number here looks wrong, tell us; corrections are dated in public.