The UK climbed two positions to a record-high 14th place in Natixis Investment Managers’ 2024 Global Retirement Index (GRI).
The country is outperforming France and the US thanks to increases in health spending per capita.
Natixis said there have been steady improvements for the UK in the GRI’s health retirement sub-index, the measure of life expectancy and health expenditure, where the country’s score has risen by three percent since last year.
The UK also experienced a slight improvement in the material wellbeing sub-index, moving to 21st place.
The country only maintained its score in the finances in retirement sub-index, prompting a downward shift by three places in the rankings to 18th. In Natixis’ quality of life ranking, the UK stayed in 11th place.
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Switzerland took top spot in the overall rankings, ahead of Norway which has topped the index for the past two years. Iceland, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Belgium also ranked highly across the various measures.
Global retirement conditions have remained stable this year following significant improvements in nearly all developed countries in last year’s index, Natixis said.
Andrew Benton, head of northern Europe and MEACA at Natixis IM, said: “The past few years have seen some big shifts that impact our finances and plans for the future: the ongoing transition from defined benefit to defined contribution pensions, rising public debt bills, short term shocks like Covid, and geopolitical tensions firing up inflation, all of which drive anxiety about financial futures for individuals.
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“While retirement security has improved in the UK, individuals are increasingly taking their retirement security into their own hands, given the changing market backdrop,” he continued.
“In light of this shift, financial services providers need to be more proactive in helping people to save more – to and through retirement – by offering better support and solutions that are tailored to today’s environment and individual retirement needs, including access to both public and private markets if we are to help prevent a retirement crisis down the line.”
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