The Netherlands has been ranked as the fifth-best country in the world to retire in by the Global Retirement Index. Overall, the Netherlands is one of the best countries for quality of life and healthcare for retirees.

Global Retirement Index 2024

The purpose of the Global Retirement Index by Natixis is to determine which countries are the best to retire in, so that other countries can learn from them and make improvements for their own retirees. To create the ranking, Natixis ranked 44 different countries through the following categories:

• Health: spending on health insurance, life expectancy and healthcare spending
• Quality of life: air quality, environmental factors, happiness and quality of water
• Material well-being: salaries, income equality and unemployment
• Finances in retirement: pensions, inflation, taxes and interest rates

Each nation is compared and given a percentage score in each category. A total average of all categories is then used to calculate the final ranking, with a score of 100 being the best possible. In 2024, Switzerland was named the best place for retirement, pushing Norway to second place. Iceland rounded out the top three.

The Netherlands one of the best places in the world to retire

In 2024, the Netherlands moved up from sixth to fifth place with an overall score of 79 percent, making particular progress in the health category. The Low Lands ranked eighth in the categories of health and quality of life, and third in the material wellbeing category. The only category where the country didn’t rank in the top 10 was in the category of finances in retirement, where it actually dropped three places to 19th position.

The Netherlands achieved improvements in life expectancy, expenditure for healthcare and health insurance, pushing the country up in the health category. Despite declining with regard to financing, the country did make advancements in government indebtedness and inflation by managing to slow down price hikes. Income equality also improved, strengthening the material well-being of retirees. 

The quality of the environment also saw an upswing, and despite a slight decline in happiness, the overall quality of life for pensioners in the Netherlands rose because of this. 

10 best countries in the world for retirement 2024

According to the ranking by Natixis, these are the top countries for retirees:

1. Switzerland
2. Norway
3. Iceland
4. Ireland
5. The Netherlands
6. Luxembourg
7. Australia
8. Germany
9. Denmark
10. New Zealand

For more information about the Global Retirement Index, and for the full ranking, visit the Natixis website.

Thumb image credit: TonyV3112 / Shutterstock.com