Korea is the 17th-best country to retire in according to the 2022 Global Retirement Index (GRI) report released on Sept. 12 by the French investment bank Natixis. (Screen capture from report)

By Kim Hayeon  

Korea is the second-best Asian country to retire in and 17th among 44 countries surveyed.

The U.S. business news service Bloomberg on Sept. 13 reported on the top countries for retirement based on the 2022 Global Retirement Index (GRI) released by the French investment bank Natixis.

The rankings are based on analyses of 44 countries including those in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 18 categories including government indebtedness, unemployment, medical expenses, air quality and life expectancy.

Korea finished six notches higher than last year, when it was 23rd, and made the top 20 for the first time since 2014, when it was 16th.

The country received scores of 80 in health, 59 in quality of life, 68 in material wellbeing and 73 in finances in retirement, with an overall score of 70.

The report said, "South Korea's largest score improvement is in the Material Wellbeing (16th) sub-index," attributing the rise to higher scores in the unemployment and income per capita indicators.

"South Korea's next largest improvement is the Quality of Life (34th) sub-index," it added. "Its higher sub-index score is due to higher scores in both the environmental factors and happiness indicators."

Norway was rated the best country to retire in, followed in order by Switzerland, Iceland, Ireland and Australia.

Other developed economies on the list included Germany (11th), the U.S. (18th), the U.K. (19th), Japan (22nd) and France (24th).

Since 2012, Natixis has conducted its annual GRI survey to obtain basic data in assessing the suitability of investment by country.