Want to Improve Your Quality of Life? Move to Central America
Estimates from the United Nations Population Division in mid-2013 showed 13,000 Americans living in Costa Rica, 12,000 in Panama, 4,000 in Nicaragua and 3,000 in Belize.
Costa Rica has long been attractive destination for U.S. retirees, but the latter three countries have become increasingly popular in recent years and often turn up on lists of the best places to retire abroad, including one from AARP.
Why would someone pull up stakes to live in a foreign country with perhaps a different language and culture (English is the official language of Belize)?
A recently published study, "Expats: Expectations & Reality," by Best Places In The World to Retire, provides some answers.
It summarizes the responses of 389 expatriates living in Central America, the vast majority of whom live in Panama, Belize and Nicaragua. The survey was hosted on SurveyGizmo and was conducted between April 17 and April 27. Among respondents, 73.5 percent said their home country was the U.S., while 12.9 percent came from Canada, 4.6 percent from the U.K., 3.9 percent from elsewhere in Europe and the remainder from other countries.
