7 Best English Speaking Countries To Retire, Live or Visit

Thailand is one of the most beautiful, most popular places on earth to retire. Out of 123 countries tested for English, it ranks 116th. Cambodia, next door, ranks dead last. This is real. For ordering lunch, is it going to bug you? Probably not. You point at a picture, you hold up two fingers, you gesture, I've done this in Vietnam for years with my barely passable conversational Viet, but English matters in the rooms. It matters in the doctor's office, a landlord's office, immigration office. Those are rooms where a misunderstanding costs you your health, your lease, your visa, your home, right? So, this is seven countries on four continents where you can talk in all those rooms in English. I'll put every one of them against the social security check, budget-wise, and the cheapest one to live in might turn out to be a nightmare for you. You're going to have to wait around and see. I'm Evan A, an expat in Asia obsessed with cost of living, quality of living abroad in different cities and countries around the world. So, those are topics you're interested in, make sure to hit the little red subscribe button. It's free. You just have to click and you'll get more of these great videos. What counts as English-speaking? Okay, nobody who makes these videos defines it accordingly.

They just put a flag on the screen. So, let's break down the tests I used to decide if it's actually the kind of English you're going to understand, you're going to enjoy, you're going to be able to communicate in. Test one, is it an official language? That means the laws, the court papers, the government forms actually exist in English. If you end up in a dispute, you can read your own file. You can go to court and it's English. Test two, do ordinary people actually speak it? The shopkeeper, the taxi driver, the guy who fixes your air conditioning unit, right? Test three, can you get a diagnosis and sign a lease in English? That's the one that matters regardless of your age and no index measures it. A country has to pass at least two of those three tests to make this list. Then, of course, there's always the money element, same in every video. You know, how does $2,000 last in that city, country? One person in a one-bedroom living in the city center based on Numbeo's cost of living data. We look at that rent number, and we always tack on $300 for health insurance here and a roughly 500 a year for the visa. That's the model I use. If you have a different one, great. You can tell me about it in the comments.

Ultimately, you got to pay for a visa and health care just about everywhere you live. Quick cuts. Singapore passes all these tests, but it costs about 4,700 a month. No retirement visa, forget it. Ireland is English, EU. Its capital costs more than American cities. Neither's cheap, so neither's on the list. Let's start with number seven, the one that fails the money test ultimately. Otherwise, this might be the perfect spot for a lot of you to retire abroad, especially if you're looking at retiring in Europe. Malta. Malta, English is one of Malta's two official languages next to Maltese. The laws are in English, the courts work in English. You're in the European Union, the health care is good, and it's a two-hour flight from most of Europe. On the English test, it's nearly perfect. You can also fly direct to plenty of places on the East Coast. Now the money. In Sliema, where a lot of foreigners live, a center one-bedroom is about 1,564 euros a month. That's about $1,750. Everyday costs before rent are about 946 euros. Your total is about $2,300 a month. In other words, it's not going to meet that 2,000 a month threshold for a lot of you on a fixed income on social security. One check there is going to leave you $1,240 short. And then, of course, there's the tax. An American with only a US passport goes through Malta's global residence program. It takes the income you bring into Malta at 15% with a minimum of 15,000 euros a year. That's about $1,400 a month, whether your income justifies it or not.

And under new rules that start this January, that minimum for new global residents goes up to 35,000 euros. Ultimately, you have to pay to be living like a local in Malta, right? If you want to be a resident there, you're going to get taxed and treated like a resident, or in this case a global resident. So, Malta is English, it's beautiful, it's European. It's a place for people with real money though. A lot of you aren't going to visit here. I'd be surprised frankly if many of you watching this video would be able to end up living there and retiring there. Number six, a Caribbean option. I haven't talked much about countries in the Caribbean on this channel before. Not cuz I don't love them, cuz they just often don't qualify or fit the needs I'm looking for. In this case though, Jamaica. English is the official language. Laws, courts, forms, all English. On the street you'll hear Patois, yes, and you'll miss half of it at first, but anybody can switch to English with you. Two English tests out of three easy, and the third depends on which hospital or doctor you go to. Kingston, where the data is solid, comes to about 2490 a month in this model. A center one bedroom is about 153,000 Jamaican dollars, roughly 960 US, so under 1,000. Everyday costs are high because almost everything is imported to the island, right? Milk is some of the most expensive milk in the world.

There's just certain things when you're living on an island that make it harder to get. Ultimately, that $2,000 test, the social security check, you're about $400 short a month. Outside of Kingston on the north coast, rents are lower, but Numbeo doesn't have enough data there for me to put a real reliable cost of living number on screen. And of course, the catch. There's two big ones. The first is crime, and safety. Jamaica's had one of the highest murder rates in the Americas for years. It's fallen sharply recently to the lowest in three decades, and most of it is concentrated in very certain neighborhoods, but it's still not something you can just ignore. The second is weather, hurricane season. Last October, Melissa hit Jamaica as a category five, the strongest storm to make landfall there since records began in 1850s. The western parishes took the worst of it. The airport in Montego Bay was badly damaged, and some of the big resorts there still aren't reopening until the end of this year. Also, there's no dedicated retirement visa if that's one of the things you care about. You come in as a visitor for 90 days, and staying longer means applying for an extension through Jamaica's immigration agency. It can be done, but it's just not a freebie program built for you as a retiree. Number five, the cheapest first world city on this entire list is somewhere that a lot of people ignore, I think for reasons that are going to become clear, but a lot of other people absolutely love it. I'm talking about Cape Town, South Africa.

South Africa has 12 official languages, and English is the one government, business, and the courts run on. In Cape Town, you'll do your banking, your lease, and your doctor in English without even thinking about it. Private hospitals there are first world, first class, all three tests passed, no doubt. The money comes to about $2,200 a month, right? A center one bedroom there is 16,900 rand. That's roughly a thousand, thousand and twenty-five bucks. Everyday cost before rent can be about 12,000 rand. There's about 125 people contributed to the Numbeo numbers, so these these are pretty reliable numbers where you're you're right there. It's very close to sort of the cost, 2,000 a month, a social security check. Um, just about a hundred dollars or so short. Uh, what I didn't expect when I started this research though was the visa. South Africa wants proof of 37,000 rand a month in income for life. At this month's rate, that's about 2,240 dollars. So, the average social security check doesn't qualify. You need a bigger check or a pension on top of it, uh, or enough assets to show some sort of other income coming in every month. Again, a surprise for me. The flip side though, in some ways, Cape Town, an incredible city. Obviously, the catch everybody knows about is the crime. Cape Town's nice neighborhoods are walled, gated, alarmed. Load shedding, the rolling power cuts has eased a lot, but it's a reason people still buy solar panels and backup batteries, and frankly, lock their doors. Number four, this one is literally built for American retirees. I frankly don't understand why there

aren't more American retirees there already. It's place I always loved visiting when I was located in Mexico, Belize. English is the only official language in Belize. It's the only country in Central America where the official language is English. Yes, there's Spanish around and there's Creole on the street, but government, courts, and contracts are English. It passes the two tests cleanly. Data warning first. Numbeo has a few contributors for the whole country, so I'm using a national average, which is about $1,980 a month. A center one-bedroom averages about $560, and everyday costs about $875. So, that's high for Central America because like Jamaica, a lot of stuff ends up being imported to Belize, especially if you're on the islands they call keys like Ambergris Caye or like Caye Caulker, places like that. Beautiful though. One check does clear the budget, so 2,000 bucks the social security test passes. It's got the qualified retired person pension program and it's run by the tourism board, not immigration. You need $2,000 a month in foreign income, and it has to be deposited into a Belize bank. The average check does clear that.

The fees are about $1,350 to get in. Your foreign income isn't going to be taxed in Belize. Your social security is going to come in clean, and you can bring in your household goods duty-free. There's a couple basic, you know, bonuses, perks for retirees coming into Belize when you move in that first time. There's also some good real estate available there if you're looking to legitimately buy and settle. The catch though is test three. Belize is small and its hospitals are tiny. For anything serious, a lot of people end up going to Mexico or even Guatemala if you can't fly home. If you live on one of the islands, getting to a hospital is a boat or a plane ride away. That's just a fact. There's nothing to get around that. There's nothing to say about that. Just a quick note before we get to the next country here. I'm talking about a little mistake I made when I was putting this list together. When I first sketched it all out, I had Malta penciled in as the cheapest way to live in EU in English. You know, the small island, the pensioner program, the low tax. Then I read who the program's actually for, and if you're an American, it goes through a different one with a 15,000 euro minimum tax, and that's you know, more than double. So, Malta went from number four to dead last, and yada yada yada, right? Visas, cost, quality of living abroad, these are all seriously moving targets that are constantly changing. So, if you want to stay up-to-date, make sure to comment the word news below, and I'll send you my weekly newsletter. It goes out free every week. Again, just comment news below, and I'll send you the free link to sign up for the newsletter. Number three, this is the most English city in Asia, bar none. A lot of friends end up living there. It's a fact, even friends

who come through Thailand or Vietnam, they end up finishing off last, settling here instead. The Philippines, of course. English is one of the two official languages in the Philippine constitution, next to Filipino. Laws are written in English, court papers are in English, your visa application is in English. The Philippines trains nurses for half the world, and medical school is, of course, taught in English. So, when you describe a pain in your chest at a hospital there, you don't need to find the word for it. Passes all through tests, no asterisks, easy peasy, and it's a enormous draw for community, friendship, and dating. Yep, EF scores the Philippines 569, 28th in the world. Manila on its own scores 603, the very highest band of English language usage. Manila comes to about 1555 a month, US dollars. Cebu, which is where a lot of retirees end up, because it's smaller and the islands are right there, is about 1479 a month. A central one-bedroom in Cebu Cebu is about 32,000 pesos, or $500. In Manila, depending on if you're BGC, Makati, the price can go up a little bit, but if you go outside of the city, you can find something for 300 bucks. So, there are ways to keep the Philippines very, very affordable, and compared to the cost of living back home in America, Canada, oh my god, it's still really cheap. It's just not as cheap, maybe, as parts of Cambodia, Vietnam. One check definitely clears.

The visa is the SRRV, if you're 50 or over with a pension, $800 a month, the deposit is $15,000. That goes up if you're a little bit younger like me, it can go into an account that can then qualify for a condo purchase or a long-term lease. I've done other videos about this, but basically, you can buy a house there. The deposit isn't spent, but isn't free either, right? There's a $1,500 application fee, $360 annual fee, and what that 15,000 could have earned at 4%, it does end up costing about 100 bucks a month or something like that. So, the real Cebu number with the visa is about $1,500 a month, 1530, somewhere in there. Still easily passing our $2,000 a month benchmark test we like to use on this channel. So, what's the catch? Always is one, right? Well, in Cebu, it's dense, it's hot, there's traffic, the pollution score is in the '80s, the beaches everyone pictures are an hour away or more. You know, you pass every English test, the money there's room to spare. It just isn't exactly the postcard, it's typhoon country.

There's massive flash flooding, hundreds of people die if not every year, certainly last year. You've got to pick your spot on the map. Some of those islands are really far from hospitals, all that stuff is real. Okay, number two. This is one I don't see a lot of this country mentioned in the space in the retire abroad and the living abroad Americans living abroad community. It's Mauritius. So, this is an island in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar, right off that southern tip of Africa. A lot of Americans couldn't point to this one. Now, the English. Mauritius was a British colony and English is the language of the parliament, the laws, and the courts. Government forms, English, right? But you walk into a shop, people are going to greet you in Creole or French. English is the language of paper there, not the language of the street. So, it passes one test easily, but the other ones are only kind of halfway. That said, the money is good. Port Louis comes in to about 1463 a month, a central one-bedroom is 22,600 rupees, roughly $470, so is very affordable. Everyday costs before rent are maybe 26,000 rupees. You're going to easily get by on your 2,000 a month through your average social security check. In fact, you're going to have over $600 left over. That said, there's not a lot of data, there's not a lot of contributors. I would just say treat this one as a strong candidate, but probably not a final answer. It's also a really long way from home. There's no direct flight to the US. You got to connect through Dubai or maybe go through Paris or all in, I'd say like here in Saigon, you're talking about a full 24-hour back and forth trip back

home, right? Hold on to the visa for a minute though because it's the twist. The number one cheapest place in English on Earth almost, but for real, one of my favorite places I talk about it all the time. I absolutely love it here. Number one is Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia, okay? $1,344 a month. Malaysia scores 581 on EF, first in Asia now that Singapore has been taken off the list as a native English country. Road signs, phone shops, pharmacy, private clinics, taxi drivers, Penang has a medical tourism destination, great hospitals. Yes, the national language is Malay, so that's an asterisk, but private leases are often in English and everybody speaks English. A center one bedroom is about 1,650 ringgit. That's only $400. Move outside the center and the whole month drops to about 1170. Penang has the highest quality of life score of any city I've ever tested in Asia and the cleanest air of the Asian cities here. Georgetown, the old city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's beautiful. The street food is diverse and some of the best anywhere in Asia and extremely one check here 2,000 a month, the social security clears it easily. You got 700 or so left over.

Outside the city center, you might even have 900 or 1,000 left over every month. If you wanted a big city instead, Kuala Lumpur is the same English level and the same visa at about 1640 a month. You can still easily afford to live there, just less savings. The twist though, the cheapest place to live is not the cheapest place to stay, to enter. So, Penang wins, but there's a real catch. You can get in on a 90-day visa, no problem. It's free. You just enter. Your visa free as an American. But, the long stay program, the MM2H, it now makes you buy property you can't resell for 10 years. On Penang Island, a foreign buyer's minimum for apartment is a million ringgit. That's about $245,000. On top of the property, the MM2H's entry tier wants $150,000 sitting in a fixed deposit, and foreign buyers now pay higher stamp duty or tax. So, that's about 8%. Mauritius, if you're 50 or older on the other hand, the retired non-citizen permit is valid for 10 years. You transfer at least $2,000 a month into Mauritian bank account, and that's the requirement. Used to be 1,500. The government raised it for new applicants last year. So, the average check clears this new bar by $71. After 5 years, you can then apply for a 20-year permanent residence permit. And there's no property you're forced to buy, no deposits sitting [snorts] in the bank, no minimum tax. So, it is a very appealing option if you're willing to commit long-term. Flip side, I still generally think Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia best place in the world to retire in English affordably. You put the costs side by side, Penang's about $245,000 for the cheapest apartment you're

allowed to buy, plus $150,000 bank deposit. So, you got to go there first, folks. If you want the cheapest option to get in, just go to the Philippines. That's low risk. You can just be on a tourist visa for 3 years, right? Same with Belize. You can just go down there, spend some time there, figure it out. Malaysia, though, you've got to be there 90 days, and likely you're going to have to sell your home, your property back home to invest in your retirement property to live long-term on Penang, Malaysia Island. Ultimately, again, the cheapest place to live in English is Penang, but it's got a six-figure door to stay there long-term for a decade. The cheapest place to stay is Mauritius. You can just walk on through. The way I'd test the place, walk in the hospital you'd actually use, ask for a blank patient consent forms. If it comes back in English, good. If they have to go and find someone to translate, then you know you're having an issue. Check whether the hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission International, and it's a US-based standard. It isn't a guarantee, but this is a good floor. You can also ask your insurer for their direct billing list in the city you're thinking of moving to. If the hospital you like isn't on it, you have to pay first and claim later, and at 65 at any age, that can be a [ __ ] pain in the ass, and you might not even have the money to front it. Ask landlords for leases before you sign anything, you know? Is it coming in English? Is it coming in two languages? What's going on there?

Obviously, the case against this video, English costs money, but not always, right? Manila is about 1555 a month. Hanoi in the same model here in Vietnam is about 1200. You can save 300 bucks a month, but the reality, a lot of people in Hanoi don't speak English. The young folks do, but old folks don't. Penang, 1300. Da Nang, where I used to live, roughly the same price, maybe more beautiful, maybe more of a pain in the ass. There's been a lot of expat videos complaining about Da Nang lately. Up to you. I loved it there. I just moved away because I wanted to live in the city with my wife and my kids to find better education. All right, before we sign off, the whole list fast in review. Penang, 1344 with a door that costs six figures. Mauritius, 1463 and the easiest door on the list if your check clears 2000. Cebu City in the Philippines, 1479. All three English tests and a 15,000 dollar deposit, plus you can get in there for a few years on a tourist anyways. Belize, about 1900. The retirement program the best tax deal, not to mention it's darn close to home.

Cape Town, 2200. First world care and a visa your average check probably doesn't meet. Kingston, Jamaica, about 2500, but there's the crime, there's the hurricanes, there's everything else. It's got to be your vibe, as they say. And Malta, 3300 before the tax, but it gets you into the EU, which might be a big deal for you, a big thing, especially if you're just flying over the pond in the the from East Coast. Thanks so much for watching. Again, comment the word news for my free weekly newsletter. I'll send you the link. I'm Evan A, an expat in Asia obsessed with the cost of living and quality of life. Subscribe to the channel if you want more videos just like this, or you can watch this one here, which I talk about some of the problems American retirees abroad don't see coming, or this one, which lists 20 countries where Americans living abroad can get free residency right now.