The Cost To Retire Comfortably Around The World

For Americans considering retirement abroad, the same savings can go dramatically different distances depending on the destination.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, maps the estimated cost for Americans to retire comfortably around the world, based on data from NetCredit and Numbeo.

Estimates reflect a retirement of 14 years and 8.4 months, based on the average U.S. retirement age and life expectancy, and exclude taxes and healthcare costs.

The U.S. Is One of the Most Expensive Places to Retire

At an estimated $738,000, the U.S. ranks as the fifth-most expensive country in the dataset for an American to retire comfortably, behind Singapore, Iceland, Switzerland, and Luxembourg.

Rank	Country	Cost to Retire Comfortably ($USD)
1	🇸🇬 Singapore	$1.1M
2	🇮🇸 Iceland	$893K
3	🇨🇭 Switzerland	$859K
4	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	$794K
5	🇺🇸 United States	$738K
6	🇮🇪 Ireland	$702K
7	🇦🇪 UAE	$684K
8	🇳🇱 Netherlands	$663K
9	🇮🇱 Israel	$642K
10	🇬🇧 United Kingdom	$627K
11	🇩🇰 Denmark	$625K
12	🇳🇴 Norway	$623K
13	🇦🇺 Australia	$620K
14	🇶🇦 Qatar	$606K
15	🇨🇦 Canada	$598K
16	🇨🇷 Costa Rica	$556K
17	🇦🇹 Austria	$553K
18	🇲🇹 Malta	$551K
19	🇧🇪 Belgium	$534K
20	🇩🇪 Germany	$530K
21	🇳🇿 New Zealand	$527K
22	🇨🇾 Cyprus	$525K
23	🇫🇮 Finland	$520K
24	🇸🇪 Sweden	$508K
25	🇫🇷 France	$496K
26	🇮🇹 Italy	$491K
27	🇵🇹 Portugal	$478K
28	🇪🇸 Spain	$478K
29	🇺🇾 Uruguay	$451K
30	🇭🇷 Croatia	$442K
31	🇪🇪 Estonia	$438K
32	🇵🇱 Poland	$438K
33	🇰🇼 Kuwait	$436K
34	🇨🇿 Czech Republic	$432K
35	🇸🇮 Slovenia	$430K
36	🇱🇹 Lithuania	$429K
37	🇱🇻 Latvia	$427K
38	🇹🇹 Trinidad & Tobago	$427K
39	🇸🇰 Slovakia	$417K
40	🇰🇷 South Korea	$406K
41	🇬🇷 Greece	$406K
42	🇯🇵 Japan	$398K
43	🇲🇪 Montenegro	$395K
44	🇦🇱 Albania	$388K
45	🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia	$362K
46	🇹🇷 Turkey	$361K
47	🇲🇩 Moldova	$360K
48	🇷🇸 Serbia	$359K
49	🇲🇽 Mexico	$356K
50	🇹🇼 Taiwan	$354K
51	🇭🇺 Hungary	$347K
52	🇦🇷 Argentina	$347K
53	🇩🇴 Dominican Republic	$339K
54	🇨🇱 Chile	$338K
55	🇷🇴 Romania	$335K
56	🇺🇿 Uzbekistan	$331K
57	🇲🇺 Mauritius	$330K
58	🇬🇭 Ghana	$324K
59	🇳🇬 Nigeria	$324K
60	🇧🇬 Bulgaria	$324K
61	🇹🇿 Tanzania	$322K
62	🇹🇭 Thailand	$317K
63	🇬🇪 Georgia	$315K
64	🇿🇦 South Africa	$313K
65	🇵🇪 Peru	$305K
66	🇲🇰 North Macedonia	$304K
67	🇮🇷 Iran	$302K
68	🇵🇭 Philippines	$301K
69	🇧🇦 Bosnia & Herzegovina	$299K
70	🇻🇪 Venezuela	$296K
71	🇻🇳 Vietnam	$295K
72	🇰🇿 Kazakhstan	$294K
73	🇲🇾 Malaysia	$292K
74	🇮🇶 Iraq	$290K
75	🇺🇦 Ukraine	$286K
76	🇲🇦 Morocco	$284K
77	🇷🇺 Russia	$281K
78	🇪🇨 Ecuador	$281K
79	🇨🇳 China	$279K
80	🇨🇴 Colombia	$279K
81	🇰🇪 Kenya	$272K
82	🇺🇬 Uganda	$272K
83	🇦🇿 Azerbaijan	$270K
84	🇧🇷 Brazil	$268K
85	🇧🇾 Belarus	$267K
86	🇽🇰 Kosovo	$266K
87	🇱🇰 Sri Lanka	$258K
88	🇮🇩 Indonesia	$254K
89	🇹🇳 Tunisia	$253K
90	🇩🇿 Algeria	$222K
91	🇳🇵 Nepal	$214K
92	🇪🇬 Egypt	$190K
93	🇧🇩 Bangladesh	$190K
94	🇮🇳 India	$189K
95	🇵🇰 Pakistan	$187K

Costa Rica is also a popular destination for American retirees, combining a well-regarded healthcare system with a territorial tax system that generally does not tax foreign-source income.

The estimated retirement cost is $598,000 in Canada and just $356,000 in Mexico. That means the same modeled retirement in Mexico costs less than half as much as in the U.S.

The gap extends to several popular European destinations. Portugal and Spain both come in at $478,000, roughly $260,000 below the U.S. estimate, while Greece requires an estimated $406,000.

Europe Has Some of the Biggest Retirement Cost Gaps

Retirement costs across Europe range from $893,000 in Iceland to $267,000 in Belarus.

Many of the highest estimates are concentrated in Northern and Western Europe. Switzerland ($859K), Luxembourg ($794K), Ireland ($702K), the UK ($627K), and Denmark ($625K) all rank among the more expensive countries in the dataset.

Further south and east, retirement savings can stretch considerably further. The estimated cost falls to $395,000 in Montenegro, $388,000 in Albania, and $335,000 in Romania.

Even within Western Europe, there are sizable differences. Retiring in Portugal or Spain is estimated to cost about 35% less than in the United States.

Where $200,000 Could Fund an Entire Retirement

At the other end of the ranking, just four countries have estimated retirement costs below $200,000.

Pakistan is the cheapest at $187,000, followed closely by India ($189K), Bangladesh ($190K), and Egypt ($190K). Pakistan’s estimate is roughly one-quarter of the $738,000 required in the United States.

Several other large economies also fall below $300,000, including Brazil ($268K), China ($279K), Colombia ($279K), Russia ($281K), Malaysia ($292K), and Vietnam ($295K).

Across the full dataset, the gap between the most and least expensive countries exceeds $900,000, highlighting how strongly local living costs can affect the purchasing power of retirement savings. These figures are not individualized retirement targets and exclude healthcare and taxes, which can significantly affect the cost of retiring abroad.

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on the share of Americans receiving Social Security by state.