West Sussex is the best place to retire, according to Prudential.
The county offers pensioners the highest quality of life, Prudential’s 2018 Retirement Quality of Life Index has revealed, putting it top of the index for the second year running.
West Sussex beat Dorset which came in second position, and East Sussex in third, while the Isle of Wight was fourth and Norfolk was fifth.
Prudential used data for England and Wales to map the top spots for retirement, using key indicators such as disability-free life expectancy, access to health care, crime levels, pension income, weather and happiness.
Retirees in Bedfordshire were found to be the the wealthiest, with the best score for pensioner income, knocking Surrey off the top spot and followed by Essex and Hertfordshire. Surrey dropped five places for pensioner income, to sixth place.
Kirsty Anderson, retirement expert at Prudential, said: "There are currently 12m over 65s in England and Wales, up 1.4m from 2017. Retirement is an exciting time for many, but it does come with major decisions which should not be taken lightly, one of which is where to live.
"Finding the right location is tricky but extremely important. 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 pension savings into an income, retirees should consider having a conversation with a professional financial adviser."
The Isle of Wight edged Devon out of the top five for 2018, rising four places with Devon slipping to sixth.
The index report found the county which has improved the most since 2017 was Leicestershire which jumped 14 places up to rank 32.
Norfolk, Worcestershire and Shropshire were the only counties in the top 10 which weren't in the south of England, the latter of which jumped seven places since 2017.
Somerset also jumped significantly compared to last year, rising nine places to appear in this year’s top 10 counties, while Suffolk and North Yorkshire both dropped out of this year’s top 10, falling three and eight places respectively.
rosie.quigley@ft.com
