Very interesting article on the Mail Online (who have just announced Piers Morgan as their US Editor at Large) which says that despite winding up careers and no longer having young families to look after, millions of over-65s prefer to stay exactly where they are.
Analysis by the Office for National Statistics showed only a tiny number relocate – and most of those who do move house still stay in the same area or close by.
The reluctance of older people to leave their neighbourhood was revealed in a study of 2011 national census figures.
Only 3.6 per cent of over-65s said they had changed their address in the previous year and 57 per cent of those stayed within the same local authority boundaries
Other key points included:
Interestingly (or worryingly) for expat focussed businesses in Spain retiring abroad has also become less likely.
‘France and Spain have been highly popular retirement destinations in recent years, but that has been reversed, partly because people may have underestimated some of the problems they can encounter,’ she (Pensions expert Dr Ros Altmann) said. ‘The grass is not always greener, and the beach isn’t always sandier.’
The ONS report said 5.8 per cent of the retirees who relocated in the year before the census had moved from abroad.