World News for Students of English

19-10-2026 07:00

A new study names Uruguay as the best country in the world for retirement, while Portugal drops to fifth place.

The index looked at 46 retirement programs around the world. It checked quality of life, travel freedom, taxes, and costs. Even though Uruguay is number one, Europe still has six countries in the top ten, including Spain, Greece, and Italy. European countries are great for high living standards and safe travel, but they often have high taxes. For example, Spain is wonderful for living but has the highest taxes on the list. Portugal is still popular and affordable, but now requires ten years to get citizenship.

Other parts of the world, like the Americas and Mauritius, are attractive because they offer lower taxes and cheaper living costs.

Difficult words: retirement (the period of life after you stop working), index (a system which compares data), affordable (when people have enough money to buy something), citizenship (the legal status that you are a member of a country).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.