Deciding where to spend your golden years is a huge decision – you want to make a good leisurely time of it, after all, and the city or country you choose has gotta be just right. That’s why we have a curated guide on our top picks for the best places in the world to retire.

But property-buying platform We Buy Any Home has also done some research. They analysed 30 popular retirement destinations from all over the world and assessed them based on factors such as the price of rent, the price to buy per square metre, mortgage interest rates and World Happiness Report scores.

So which destination claimed the top spot, according to them? Well, it’s Finland! The Nordic country has the highest happiness score and the fourth highest health index score, and pairing all that with the low pollution levels, it scored a perfect 100.

Malaysia came in second place with a score of 96.1 thanks to its affordability (the price per square metre of an apartment to buy is around £808 or €960 here), and Belgium came in third, with a score of 95.7.

Another study into the best cities to retire also featured destinations in the Netherlands and Finland, however, Australia claimed three entries in that list, but doesn’t appear in this one – maybe take a look at both to see which factors matter most to you.

These are the 10 best countries to retire in
1.  Finland
2.  Malaysia
3. Belgium
4.  Sweden
5. Denmark
6.  Spain
7. Costa Rica
8. France
9. Thailand
10. Austria