Honesty over hype
Real data with its sources shown, "last updated" dates on everything, and a plain “no data” where we hold none — never a rose-tinted sales pitch.
About ExpatAlmanac
About ExpatAlmanac — and the person behind it
ExpatAlmanac is a worldwide comparison engine for retirement towns. It is built for English-speaking retirees deciding where to live — abroad, wherever they are from, or in another US state — and every figure on it shows its source and its date.
ExpatAlmanac compares towns on the questions a retirement decision turns on: what housing costs, what its homicide rate is, how far the hospital is, what the climate is like, and what the residence and tax rules are. Each town answers in its own country's official figures, measured the same way wherever that is possible and labeled wherever it is not. Where a figure is missing, the page says why rather than filling the gap.
Some rules depend on where the reader is from: which country may tax a pension, whether home healthcare cover follows them, how long they may visit. Those are shown for each reader's own country, so a Briton, an Australian and an American reading the same town page each see the rules that apply to them.
The person behind it
ExpatAlmanac was founded by Ruben Elizondo, a senior software engineer. He was born in Mexico and lived in six of its cities — Mexico City, Cuernavaca, Zihuatanejo, Monterrey, Querétaro and Guadalajara — before moving to the United States, where he works today and is planning his own retirement.
Researching that decision, he found information scattered across many places, much of it outdated, contradictory or selling something, and no single place that compared towns on the things that matter with the sources shown and the dates visible. ExpatAlmanac is the tool he set out to build to fix that.
What ExpatAlmanac stands for
One method, every country
The same measurement for every town wherever one exists, and a stated reason wherever it does not — never one country's figure passed off as another's.
Trust you can verify
Official data where it exists, clearly labeled estimates where it does not, and — when it opens — a directory of local professionals where the Vetted badge needs a resident's vouch.
Built for the people making this decision
Clear, readable, and straight with you, whichever country you are reading from.
The bar is the one a family would set for its own decision: nothing stated that the data does not support.
Ruben Elizondo, founder of ExpatAlmanac
Senior software engineer · Connect on LinkedIn · ExpatAlmanac is operated by Ruben Elizondo, an independent publisher in the United States.
Ready to start?
The town data and comparisons on this site are free to explore right now.
Coming soon: a personalized matcher quiz and a vetted local directory of trusted contacts.