Look where the UK and French are placed !
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interesting read… must confess, seeing the ratings I am wondering why we have a Danish family recently moved into our village… 
and, yes, they have come from Denmark… lock, stock and barrel.
Bit surprised to see Ireland up there in the top 4.
Can’t speak for pension wealth, but the public healthcare system doesn’t appear to be brilliant - presumably, most respondents had enough money to pay for private healthcare.
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Not all of Denmark is lovely, and it’s a harsh place to be in the winter.
I agree with @RicePudding that it’s a surprise to see Ireland near the top, and also find it amusing that France is ranked lower than the UK, level with Estonia. Perhaps the ranking of countries contained some biases that we might not have expected.
Ah… so Denmark is not necessarily a good place to spend one’s retirement… despite the ratings.
(their kids are over with spouses and they’re all looking for new homes, so we’ll have quite a Danish outpost before long…
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I haven’t seen a lot of the country (visited 4 times over the last 25 years) but a nice part of France is much nicer than a slightly less nice bit of Denmark, and costs are quite a bit lower for food and drink. Combine that with milder temperatures and I can see why someone might want to relocate. If Danish pensions match the Danish cost of living then one might be quite well off retired in France, even with a relatively modest pension.
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It is a cold country Stella. I had friends , he british and her danish with two kids who moved to Charente. He worked and they loved France but decided to return to Denmark when she suffered health problems .
By the way, the Danish Royal family aren’t stupid. They own a chateau near Cahors and can often be seen wandering around the local area with people totally unaware of them being the rulers of Denmark !
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I’ve several danish ex-colleagues who’ve left UK but are working all over the world it seems… now I possibly know why they are rarely “back home” in Denmark…
Also Stella, it’s a very expensive country to live, like most of Scandinavia so the majority of Brits and or Europeans wouldn’t survive long on their state pensions.
Denmark was “Switzerland +” levels of expensive when I was testing there for a week a decade or so ago and I don’t imagine it’s got any cheaper.
Due to the unavailability of a van to lay all my test kit out in, our local vehicle and security escort company had supplied their roomiest vehicle, a Mercedes S500 which got a lot of attention from the locals as the amount of import duty/tax paid on those at the time made them cost the same as a very nice house in the countryside.
The proprietor of a coffee shop we stopped at out in the sticks actually asked my driver if I was a Russian oligarch looking for a holiday home due to the combination of €250,000 car, a brick outbuilding in a sharp suit for the chauffeur and my having my head buried in a laptop. My ex-Danish army driver found the whole thing incredibly amusing.
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reminds me of a message I once took for my boss… after a chat, I carefully noted the caller’s name and promised to deliver it…
I wrote the caller’s name “Franz gobbledygook”
My boss nearly died laughing… it had been a poor telephoneline and I’d heard “Franz” instead of Prince…
Just as well I’m always polite…
I think the only place that I’ve visited more expensive than Scandi countries is Israel, although I understand that Icelandic prices are even more eye-watering. On our last trip to Copenhagen around 5 years ago we found a place selling fish and chips inside Tivoli for the absolute bargain price of around £25 take-away for 2 portions, and we ate there 2 nights running. The first night we enjoyed pizza + soft drinks for about £90.
That chart is rubbish. UK over France is a joke. Quality of life, healthcare, finances in retirement and material wellbeing are all far better in France. We would struggle in the UK as pensioners but can live a pleasant and affordable life here in France with no worries about our health care. At our ages we would be virtually ignored in the UK and see a doctor?
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Danish weather? Danish heavily processed food? Really boring Danish landscape? Proximity to the Baltic?
It’s a wonder anyone lives there!
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I agree, but I am wondering if those ratings are really for the best countries to be a pensioner of, rather than to retire to with a foreign pension. Norway comes out top because it is the wealthiest country in the world per capita I believe, but prices there are through the roof compared to elsewhere. I know a couple who emigrated to the Charente while he was still working in Norway, he commuted every weekend till he joined her in retirement.
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Ahh but they constantly get voted happiest people on earth! I lived there a year when I was 18 as an exchange student, best year of my life! I was with 3, very different, families. I would have happily stayed forever!
Ignorance (of other countries) may be bliss…
Now that you know France would you prefer to live in cold, wet, expensive Copenhagen? And don’t get mes started on their Zoo’s bloody Norman Foster Elephant House - but if you’re curious you can find out why it’s an abomination at :-
Completely agree!
Look where it comes from, and whether this is really an authoritative research body?
The health category it seems is based on things such as whether people pay or not, rather than the service received. So UK comes out higher than France because it is free at the point of service. Even tho’ the service received can be rubbish!
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Article written by half-wit, it is rubbish.
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Spent some time in Ireland in the summer and talking to people there, they say the health service is in a terrible state. One woman told me that she was told that to have her knee replaced, she would have to wait several years. She eventually went private at great cost.