Where could you actually afford to retire?
ExpatAlmanac is for English-speaking retirees deciding where to live: abroad, from the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand, or in another US state. Compare towns and countries on rent, utilities, healthcare, safety and residency rules — with the source and the date behind every single number.
Free. No card. We publish what we can verify and say plainly when we can't.
How we know this
95% interval 17.9–29.4 · 2020–2024. Measured for the whole Chapala municipality, not Chapala / Ajijic alone. Higher than 33% of the 1,138 Mexican municipalities with 10 or more in 2020–2024, ranked by where the deaths occurred. INEGI, Estadísticas de Defunciones Registradas (EDR), microdatos 2020–2024, by municipio of residence · population: CONAPO, Población a mitad de año por municipio (pry23), 2020–2024 · read 2026-09-24How we know this
95% interval 0.6–1.0 · 2020–2024. Measured for the whole Málaga province, not Marbella alone. Higher than 80% of the 35 Spanish provinces with 10 or more in 2020–2024. INE, Estadística de defunciones según la causa de muerte, 099 Agresiones (homicidio), by province of residence · population: INE, Estadística Continua de Población (table 56945), mean of 1 January stocks, 2020–2024 · read 2026-09-24How we know this
95% interval 2.1–3.6 · 2020–2024. Higher than 11% of the 1,214 US counties with 10 or more in 2020–2024. CDC WONDER, Underlying Cause of Death 2018-2024 (Single Race, final), by county of residence · population: CDC WONDER (US Census Bureau estimates), sum of annual populations 2020–2024 · read 2026-09-24Each country's police count crime under its own law, with their own definitions and reporting rates — Mexico's SESNSP, the FBI's UCR, Spain's Balance de Criminalidad and Portugal's RASI, for example. So this comparison is refused for every country we cover, and for each one we add. The homicide row above compares registered deaths instead, coded one way everywhere.
The number we won't show you is the reason to trust the rest.
Police forces count crime under their own country's law, and each country defines and records offences differently, with different reporting rates. Mexico's SESNSP, the FBI's UCR, Spain's Balance de Criminalidad and Portugal's RASI are four examples; the same holds for every country we cover, and for each one we add.
Put their figures in one row and you would read a difference that is partly just bookkeeping — and you could not tell which part. So we refuse that comparison.
Homicide is the one we can compare honestly: a death certificate is coded the same way everywhere (ICD-10 assault codes X85–Y09, plus Y87.1 where the national series includes it), so the homicide row counts registered deaths, not police files — and names the area each figure covers.
4 countries so far, published one at a time as their figures are sourced
Abroad, the countries come from where US Social Security pays beneficiaries — not from a list of nice places.
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On sale when billing opens — the prices are set.
Reports open when the site launches.
The report starts from the same sourced figures you see here, then adds clearly labeled estimates for the costs no official source prices for each town.
How a number gets onto this site
Three gates. A figure that fails any of them is shown as "no data" rather than estimated.
It has a publisher
A statistical office, a government programme, or a listings sample with its size. Every figure says which of those it is.
It has two dates
When the figure took effect, and when a human last read it at the source. When it passes its shelf life, the page says so — it does not quietly keep showing it.
It measures the same thing
Two figures share a row only when they share a definition. Asking rent (from listings) and
Rent paid (from tax declarations) are two different measurements.