The Global Retirement Index (GRI) is an attempt to examine the factors that drive retirement security and to provide a comparison tool for best practice in retirement policy.^[1] It has been published since 2012 by the French company Natixis, which specialises in asset management.^[2]

Norway, Switzerland and Iceland are respectively the first, second and third placed countries. India ranks 43rd, which is the bottom rank; it is preceded by Greece and ranks also last among the BRIC economies.^[1][3]

Qualifying countries

The countries on the list are from the following organisations:

• Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
• International Monetary Fund (IMF) advanced economies
• BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa)

Metrics

The Global Retirement Index is a composite welfare index which combines at total of 18 target-oriented indicators which are grouped into four thematic categories to calculate the position on the index. The indicators are then used to create a percentage score; countries are ranked by the score.^[4]

The four categories cover four relevant considerations for welfare in old age are listed below, along with the indicators that fall under them:^[5]

Health

• Life expectancy
• Health expenditure per capita
• Insured health expenditure

Material wellbeing

• Income equality
• Income per capita
• Unemployment

Quality of life/environment

• Happiness
• Air quality
• Water and sanitation
• Biodiversity and habitat
• Environmental factors

Finances in retirement

• Old-age dependency
• Bank nonperforming loans
• Inflation
• Interest rates
• Tax pressure
• Governance
• Government indebtedness