How the RetireScore Works: Methodology and Weights

How the RetireScore Works

The RetireScore is a published, deterministic score for comparing retirement destinations. It is not an editorial ranking, not a survey, and not an opinion. It is a weighted average of six axes, each 0-100, built entirely from public, verifiable data.

The six axes

Axis	What it measures	Data sources	Default weight
Healthcare	System quality, foreign-resident access, insurance cost	WHO, Numbeo Health Care Index, government health ministry sites	25%
Visa friendliness	Income threshold achievability, insurance burden, residency path	Government immigration sites, verified cross-referenced	20%
Affordability	Comfortable monthly budget, rent, cost relative to US	Manual Numbeo read (terms-compliant), banding	20%
Safety	Personal safety and political stability	Global Peace Index (IEP)	15%
Climate	Comfort, absence of extremes, retiree-friendly seasons	National meteorological services, Koppen classification	10%
Expat community	Community size, English proficiency, ease of integration	Facebook group size, InterNations data, EF EPI	10%

How each axis is scored

Each axis takes the country's data field and maps it to a 0-100 score using a deterministic band-to-points table. For example:

• Healthcare quality: "excellent" = 95, "good" = 80, "fair" = 60, "basic" = 40.
• Income requirement: "low" = 90 (easy to meet), "medium" = 65, "high" = 40.
• Safety: "very-safe" = 95, "safe" = 80, "moderate" = 55, "caution" = 30.
• Cost relative to US: "much-lower" = 95, "lower" = 80, "similar" = 50, "higher" = 30.

For axes that combine multiple fields (e.g., healthcare uses both the quality band and the foreign-resident access field), each sub-factor contributes a portion of the axis score according to a documented split.

The weighted total

The six axis scores are combined using the default weights above. The result is the RetireScore, a number from 0 to 100. The formula:

```

RetireScore = (healthcare 0.25) + (visa 0.20) + (affordability 0.20) + (safety 0.15) + (climate 0.10) + (community 0.10)

```

Custom weights

The weights are adjustable. On any country page, you can move the sliders to match your priorities. A retiree with a chronic health condition might push healthcare to 40%. A retiree on a tight fixed income might push affordability to 35%. The ranking re-sorts live. Custom-weighted shortlists can be saved with a RetireSpots Plus membership.

Handling missing data

If a data field cannot be verified from a public source, it stays empty. An axis resting on unverified data scores a neutral 50 and is flagged as "not verified." This means:

• A country with excellent healthcare but no verifiable safety data scores well on healthcare and neutrally on safety.
• A country with no verified data on any axis would score exactly 50.
• We never guess a number to fill a gap.

The honesty rule: every field shows its source (exact URL) and the date we last checked it. If a field says "not verified," that means exactly what it says: we have not confirmed it yet.

Data freshness

Fields are rechecked on different cadences:

• Visa, tax, and treaty fields: twice a year, plus reactively when rules change.
• Cost-of-living and rent bands: quarterly, with manual spot-checks.
• GPI, EF EPI, WHO indices: annually (they publish once per year).

The "last verified" date on every field is the date we last confirmed it against the source. When the date ages past the recheck window without a refresh, the field visibly ages in the UI (muted styling) so readers can judge for themselves.

Why this approach

The retire-abroad industry is full of rankings that are editorial opinion dressed as data. International Living's Global Retirement Index, for example, is built from correspondent surveys and editorial weighting. That produces readable stories but is not reproducible. We chose the opposite path: a published, deterministic formula with cited inputs. A reader who questions a score can trace it back to its source and date. That is the whole brand.