Retiring abroad puts older adults at risk for loneliness, study finds

(Press-News.org) Many people dream of retiring to a warmer, less expensive country. But retirees who move abroad may be at greater risk of loneliness than those who stay in their home country, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. 

“International retirement migration is increasingly popular in Europe and around the world. On social media you see all the people in Europe sunbathing in Spain, American retirees are moving to Mexico and Japanese retirees to Malaysia,” said study lead author Esma Betül Savaş, MSc, of the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographics Institute. “Although these retirement migrants generally report being happy, they may still face struggles adapting to a new country.”

Those struggles can involve reduced contact with family and old friends -- including adult children -- as well as difficulty forming new friendships and connections in their new countries. 

The research was published in the journal Psychology and Aging.

To better understand retirement migrants’ experiences, Savaş and her colleagues surveyed 4,995 Dutch retirees living abroad and a comparison group of 1,338 Dutch retirees still living in the Netherlands. To qualify as a retirement migrant, those living abroad had to be older than 65 and to have moved to their new country after age 50.

The researchers asked participants about their feelings of loneliness, as well as their connections with family, friends and neighbors back home and in their new countries. They looked at two aspects of loneliness – emotional loneliness, which stems from the lack of close friends or a partner, and social loneliness, which stems from a lack of a broader social circle or a sense of community. 

Overall, the researchers found that retirement migrants were socially lonelier than non-migrants. This was despite the fact that the retirement migrants were, on average, of higher socioeconomic status and healthier than the non-migrant retirees in the control group – factors that often are associated with less loneliness.

However, the retirement migrants were not, on average, emotionally lonelier than non-migrants. That makes sense, according to the researchers, because many retirees move to a new country with a spouse or partner. 

Only retirement migrants who reported that they had lost contact with good friends and family from back home were both socially and emotionally lonelier. The researchers also found that those who had more contact with neighbors and a higher sense of belonging to their new country reported less social loneliness.

The study highlights the need for retirees to consider their social support systems if they are thinking of retiring abroad, according to Savaş. 

“Older adults may face double jeopardy in retiring to a new country as they are vulnerable to both age-related and migration-related risk factors for loneliness, and loneliness is itself a risk factor for adverse health outcomes,” she said. “It’s important for people considering retirement migration to think about how they can maintain their social ties in their origin country and make new ones in their destination country.” 


Article: “Trouble in Paradise? Emotional and Social Loneliness Among International Retirement Migrants,” by Esma Betül Savaş, MSc, Kène Henkens, PhD, and Matthijs Kalmijn, PhD, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute. Psychology and Aging, published online March 13, 2025.

CONTACT: Savaş can be reached at savas@nidi.nl. 
 

The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA’s membership includes  173,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve lives.

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