{"id":2511,"date":"2024-01-06T17:22:01","date_gmt":"2024-01-07T01:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/?p=2511"},"modified":"2026-07-19T10:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T17:43:07","slug":"how-many-americans-retire-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/2024\/01\/06\/how-many-americans-retire-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"How many Americans retire abroad?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Not many. Contrary to the endless click bait articles from content mills like Insider.com, about 400,000+ Americans have retired abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we used age 65 and above as a proxy for “retired” people, then about 3\/4 of 1% (yes, less than 1%) of retirees have retired abroad. I use the figure of 1% + or – of all US retirees have retired abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is pretty close to zero!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another way to look at this is to ask how many Americans receive their Social Security benefits outside the U.S.? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 450,000: Some Retirees Are Saving Money By Moving Abroad | Entrepreneur<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 48 million Americans receive a Social Security retirement benefit, which means of the 450,000 living abroad, that’s just under 1% receiving their SS check abroad. Some people under age 65-67 receive Social Security benefits and those born since about 1959 will not receive standard benefits until about age 67 and may not choose to apply for benefits until age 67. So there is wiggle room in these estimates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up to half of those who retire abroad already had dual citizenship, right of descent ancestry or close family ties in the destination country – and have merely retired back to their “home country”. Which puts us at about 1\/2% of Americans who just packed up and moved elsewhere for retirement – and half did so because of prior dual citizenship or family connections in the destination country! And only about 1\/2% just retired abroad because why not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A huge issue for American retirees is Medicare. Medicare does not cover health problems outside the U.S. Those that move may continue to pay their Part B (and other part) premiums, but can’t use those services while abroad unless they return to the U.S. However, if they decide not to pay their Part B premiums (or Medicare supplement plans), they face a host of hurdles upon their return. Specifically, if you do not have a company\/employer provided benefit while abroad, upon return to the U.S. you pay a 10% Part B premium penalty for each year past age 65 that you were not enrolled – for all future premium payments. If you moved abroad at age 65, and skipped paying Part B for 5 years, and then returned to the US around age 70 – you would then pay a +50% additional penalty on your future Part B premiums!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, to sign up for supplement plans upon your return, your enrollment will be subject to “medical underwriting” which means your pre-existing conditions might not be covered or might incur higher premiums. See also: Medicare and moving overseas: What happens if you disenroll? | Live Well (archive.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you plan to move overseas permanently, then fine. But if you expect to return to the U.S., you may find yourself with no supplemental coverage options and much higher premiums for Part B if you do not continue your Medicare coverage, while overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consequently, for many Americans, moving overseas at retirement – if intended as a temporary move – can become expensive and complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving abroad for retirement sounds like fun – until you look into the details and financial considerations. For example, in some cases, your estate might have to pay estate taxes in both the U.S. and the destination country, when you pass away. It can be complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is likely why less than 1% of American retirees live abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It makes more sense to travel, study or work abroad when you are young – and age-based travel insurance is several times cheaper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well under 1% of Americans retire abroad, which is probably less than you thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-background"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2511"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7023,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511\/revisions\/7023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}