The 21 best places to retire in the world

If you're looking to settle down soon, you may want to reconsider sunny Florida, serene Cape Cod, or any other retirement hot spot in the US.

For the third year in a row, the US barely made it into the top 20 of the global retirement index rankings put together by Natixis.

Northern European nations, meanwhile, took eight of the top ten spots.

The index compares the ability of 150 countries to meet the needs of their retirees after examining 20 key performance indicators grouped into four broad categories: health, including life expectancy and access to quality health services; finances, including the strength of the nation's financial system; quality of life, including factors like crime rates and air pollution; and material well-being, meaning the ability to live comfortably in retirement.

The global retirement index and individual rankings are then determined by a country's score in each of these categories.

We've compiled the 21 highest-ranked countries for retirement, according to the index, along with insights from the Natixis report: