Planning on retiring early? Perhaps relocating to Slovakia or Austria is the right move. Maybe France would be a good fit. By all means, avoid Mexico and South Korea. Here's a handy retirement chart to look at while I brush up on my French. The designers at Graphic.is have designed an infographic (a word which is ubiquitous, yet still not found in the dictionary, or recognized by spell check. Can we get a petition started to have it added this year?) which shows the effective retirement age and official retirement age for thirty major countries. Interestingly, none of the countries chosen are located in South America or Africa.
To be clear, the official retirement age is the age your country finds you legally able to retire and have your retirement fund kick in; the effective retirement age is the average age at which the population declares retirement. Split by gender, the chart raises a lot of complex questions about wages, quality of life, emphasis on leisure and the role gender plays. For instance, why are there only six countries in which women average a later retirement age than men? Why is there a such marked difference between the placement of Spanish women and men in their respective lists? Does either retirement age have a bearing on general prosperity? How hard would it be for an American blogger to become a French citizen? Etc.
