West Sussex is the best place for pensioners to live, according to a survey.
The county has overtaken Dorset to top the ‘Quality of Retirement Index’, which also includes East Sussex, Devon and Norfolk as attractive places to be a pensioner.
The rankings, provided by Prudential, use eight sets of published data including the number of resident pensioners, pension income, weather and access to healthcare to design the rankings.
“Counties like West Sussex and Dorset may be attractive because of their low crime rates or the quality of their health care. However finding the right spot to live in such popular locations can be tricky,” according to Stan Russell, a retirement income expert at Prudential.
He added that other parts of the country also have something to offer pensioners, with older people in Herefordshire having the highest disability-free life expectancy and Dyfed and Powys in Wales having the lowest crime rates in England and Wales.
“It is understandable that many people want to choose somewhere attractive to live in retirement. To get the most choice when the time comes to give up work, people will benefit from saving as much as they can into a pension as early as they can in their working lives.
"And before taking any decisions on how to turn their pension savings into an income, many will also benefit from a conversation with a professional financial adviser.”
The figures showed that the Isle of Wight had the largest proportion of pensioners, while Surrey remained the county with the highest mean pension income, with an average income of £21,400, nearly a third more than the average in England and Wales.
However, those who want good weather in retirement should move to Essex, which scored highest on this indicator.
rosie.murray-west@ft.com
