Where are the happiest retirement hotspots in Wales?
Looking for the right place to live in Wales during your retirement? We reveal the happiest retirement hotspots in Wales.
It’s important to carefully consider where you will live when you retire, so you can fully enjoy your golden years. While it’s important to stay connected with family and friends, it can be helpful to live in a retirement-friendly area.
L&G’s retail business has conducted extensive research on 632 parliamentary constituencies in Great Britain, including Scotland and Wales, to discover the happiest retirement hotspots.
It looked at six key factors that measure a good quality of later life, including:
Housing: Access to residential care homes, and the percentage and availability of senior housing.
Health: Access to GPs and dentists, NHS waiting times, and the percentage of over-65s in good and poor health.
Social and community: The proportion of residents aged 65 and over, life satisfaction levels, reported levels of happiness, and distance to the nearest train station.
Financial security: Average pension income, the cost of living, housing affordability, and lack of deprivation.
Nature: The number of reported ‘summer’ days, air quality, the percentage of addresses with private outdoor space, and the average size of this space.
Access to amenities: Access to pharmacies, supermarkets, post offices, banks, libraries, theatres, museums, historical sites, and gardens.
All areas that were explored were given a score out of 100 based on the above factors.
Where are the top happiest retirement hotspots in Wales?
We’ll now reveal some of the happiest places for retirees to live in Wales.
| Ranking | Constituency | County | Overall index score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monmouthshire | Gwent | 53 |
| 2 | Dwyfor Meirionnydd | Gwynedd | 49 |
| 3 | Vale of Glamorgan | South Glamorgan | 48 |
| 3 | Ynys Mon | Gwynedd | 48 |
| 5 | Mid and South Pembrokeshire | Dyfed | 47 |
| 5 | Bangor Aberconwy | Clwyd | 47 |
| 5 | Caerfyrddin | Dyfed | 47 |
| 8 | Gower | West Glamorgan | 46 |
| 9 | Bridgend | Mid Glamorgan | 44 |
| 9 | Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe | Powys | 44 |
| 9 | Cardiff North | South Glamorgan | 44 |
Now we’ll explore some of the top retirement hotspots.
Caerfyrddin received the highest scores in access to amenities (72) and financial security (63), followed by social and community (52), nature (50), health (24), and housing (14).
The constituency had the lowest score for health out of the top retirement hotspots at 24.
In joint fifth place is Bangor Aberconwy with a score of 47 out of 100.
The constituency had the highest scores in access to amenities (72) and financial security (63), followed by nature and social and community (both 43), health (41), and housing (20).
Bangor Aberconwy scored the lowest for social and community factors out of the top hotspots listed here.
Mid and South Pembrokeshire is also in fifth place alongside Bangor Aberconwy and Caerfyrddin.
The constituency scored 75 for access to amenities, 62 for social and community, followed by 59 for financial security, 44 for nature, 29 for health, and 10 for housing.
It has the lowest score for financial security out of the top seven hotspots.
In joint third place is Ynys Mon with a score of 48 out of 100.
The constituency had the highest scores in access to amenities (63), financial security (62), followed by social and community (55), nature (48), health (34), and housing (21).
Also, with a score of 48 out of 100 is the Vale of Glamorgan.
The constituency received the highest scores in financial security (71) and social and community (58), followed by nature (46), access to amenities (43), health (39), and housing (24). It has the lowest score for access to amenities out of the top hotspots in this list.
Dwyfor Meirionnydd had the highest scores for access to amenities (90) and financial security (63), followed by social and community (62), health (37), nature (35), and housing (10). It had the lowest score for nature.
Overall, the constituency is fourth for amenities in Wales.
In first place is Monmouthshire, which received a score of 72 for access to amenities, 69 for financial security, 67 for social and community, 50 for nature, and 46 for health.
However, the constituency had the lowest score for housing out of the top seven hotspots.
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