According to the league table, six of the top 20 counties for pensioner well-being are in the South West of England, with Devon coming out on top of the rankings, Dorset in second place, Gloucestershire seventh, Wiltshire 12th, Somerset 13th and Cornwall 19th . In another boost for pensioners in the region, Prudential’s own retirement research also recently found that the South West saw one of the largest year-on-year jumps in expected retirement incomes among this year’s retirees – with new pensioners expecting to live on 19 per cent a year more than those who retired in 2014.
The pensioner well-being league table rates each county against a number of indicators including the ratio of healthcare workers per head of population, the length of time a pensioner can expect to live once they’ve retired, and the annual incidences of crime per thousand members of the county’s population. Outside of the West Country, Norfolk and Powys also rank highly in the league table. Six counties in the South East of England make the top 20, which overall is made up of 17 English counties and three Welsh.
Topping the pensioner wellbeing league table, Devon’s largely rural make-up results in a relatively low 50.1 crimes annually per thousand people – well below the national average of 56.7. The county’s pensioner life expectancy is in the national top 10 for both men and women – the average 65 year old Devonian man can expect to live for another 19 years while a woman can expect to live for another 22 years. Devon also has an above average number of healthcare workers per thousand people at 65.6 compared with the 60.9 national average. The Prudential also states that according to their research, of those retiring in 2015 more than a third (36%) of those in the South West of England say they will be able to afford to leave an inheritance to their families – well above the UK average of 29% .
Sources: www.pru.co.uk ( Article: 2015/07/30)
