Where can a retired couple live abroad on Social Security?

Social Security payments rise 3.6% for 2027, a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) the Social Security Administration announced on October 14, 2026 (press release). Its 2027 fact sheet estimates the average monthly benefit for an aged couple, both receiving benefits, at US$3,238 before the adjustment and US$3,355 after it, payable in January 2027. The table uses US$3,355. Your own benefit may be higher or lower: the CSV has every bar and estimate, so you can redo the comparison with your figure.

Couple bar is the monthly income the route asks of the main applicant plus what the rules add for a dependent spouse. Clears means the couple's US$3,355 is at least that bar. Unverified means US$3,355 clears the main applicant's bar but we found no official spouse figure, or that the rules set no fixed figure; either way the row does not count as clearing. Benefit minus estimate is US$3,355 minus our estimate of what two people spend a month living centrally in the country's best-known city; below zero, the benefit falls short.

* Cost index from World Bank indicators; see how the table is built below.

The benefit clears the couple bar and covers our estimate in 7 of 40 countries: Philippines, Dominican Republic, Türkiye, Guatemala, Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica.

It clears the couple bar but falls short of our estimate in 2: Portugal (-US$24) and Cyprus (-US$167).

The spouse decides it in 4: the benefit clears the main applicant's bar but not the couple bar in Thailand (US$3,972), Spain (US$3,491), Vanuatu (US$4,230) and Austria (US$4,804).

In 16, the benefit clears the main applicant's bar, but we found no official figure for what a spouse adds, so the counts do not treat them as clearing: Nepal, Kenya, Madagascar, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Indonesia, South Africa, El Salvador, Brazil, Belize, Mauritius, Honduras, Bulgaria, Tonga and France.

In 4, the rules ask for enough income to live on but set no fixed figure, so there is no bar to check the benefit against: Morocco, Nicaragua, Chile and Uruguay.

It covers our estimate but not the couple bar in 4: Rwanda, Mexico, Thailand and Andorra.

It does neither in 7: Greece, San Marino, Spain, Vanuatu, United Arab Emirates, Austria and Ireland.

Within US$100 of our estimate either way: Portugal (-US$24), Chile (+US$28), Andorra (+US$91) and Greece (-US$57).

We start from the 74 countries in our visa income table, each with the cheapest self-funded income route we track and a cost estimate for its best-known city. For each country with a route for retirees, pensioners or people living on a pension or their own means, we read the rules for the route a retired couple on a pension would use. Where a country has a pensioner route (pensionado, jubilado or retiree) with a lower bar, the table uses it: for Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras, that is a different route from the one in the visa income table. We leave out:

• Routes that need family, property, past residence, work or other ties to the country (8 countries): Bahrain, Belgium, Finland, Liechtenstein, Oman, Serbia, Switzerland and Trinidad & Tobago
• Pensioner routes closed to new applicants (1 country): Sri Lanka
• Digital nomad and remote-work routes (14 countries): Albania, Barbados, Croatia, Grenada, Guyana, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania and Slovenia
• Work, business and job-search routes (6 countries): Czechia, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Poland and Taiwan
• Routes that need a local investment (1 country): Cayman Islands
• Routes whose income must come from EU or Schengen work or pensions (1 country): Luxembourg
• Routes where we could not confirm that a pension or passive income qualifies (3 countries): Antigua & Barbuda, Bolivia and Lithuania

Couple bar: the lowest monthly income the route asks of the main applicant, plus what the rules add for a dependent spouse, read in November 2026 from the government, ministry, immigration office, consulate or embassy page linked under each row. The route is pensioner-specific where the country has one. Where no official page we could read gives a spouse figure, the row shows the main applicant's bar, is marked unverified and never counts as clearing; so is a row where the rules set no fixed figure. The table assumes one main applicant with a dependent spouse; some routes let each spouse apply on their own pension instead. A yearly figure is shown per month and converted to US dollars at the rate in our visa income table (mostly June 2026 rates; the CSV gives each rate). Many routes also set a minimum age or ask for savings, a deposit, health insurance or a clean record, which the table leaves out. Consulates can apply their own figures; see the notes for Peru.

Sources: Andorra (portaljuridicandorra.ad and cass.ad), Argentina (argentina.gob.ar and servicios.infoleg.gob.ar), Austria (migration.gv.at), Belize (belizetourismboard.org and belizetourismboard.org), Brazil (gov.br), Bulgaria (mvr.bg), Chile (diariooficial.interior.gob.cl), Colombia (cancilleria.gov.co), Costa Rica (dhr.go.cr and migracion.go.cr), Cyprus (gov.cy), Dominican Republic (migracion.gob.do and ws945695e.dgii.gov.do), Ecuador (gob.ec), El Salvador (migracion.gob.sv), France (service-public.gouv.fr), Greece (migration.gov.gr), Guatemala (extranjeria.igm.gob.gt), Honduras (tsc.gob.hn), Indonesia (evisa.imigrasi.go.id), Ireland (irishimmigration.ie), Kenya (immigration.go.ke and fns.immigration.go.ke), Madagascar (ambamad-paris.diplomatie.gov.mg), Mauritius (mra.mu), Mexico (dof.gob.mx and consulmex.sre.gob.mx), Morocco (sgg.gov.ma), Nepal (il.nepalembassy.gov.np), Nicaragua (pgr.gob.ni), Panama (migracion.gob.pa), Peru (gob.pe), Philippines (pra.gov.ph), Portugal (vistos.mne.gov.pt and dgert.gov.pt), Rwanda (businessprocedures.rdb.rw), San Marino (consigliograndeegenerale.sm and esteri.sm), South Africa (saembassy.org and dirco.gov.za), Spain (exteriores.gob.es and sepe.es), Thailand (thaiconsulatela.thaiembassy.org and kualalumpur.thaiembassy.org), Tonga (tongaembassycn.gov.to), Türkiye (e-ikamet.goc.gov.tr and csgb.gov.tr), United Arab Emirates (u.ae), Uruguay (gub.uy), Vanuatu (immigration.gov.vu). For Dominican Republic, Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, we read an Internet Archive capture of the official page.

Couple estimate: our model estimate of what two people spend a month living centrally in the country's best-known city we rank (the one most read on English Wikipedia). It starts from our own country-level cost-of-living index (New York = 100), rises with city size, and is converted from euros at €1 = US$1.16. It comes from our city dataset (last rebuilt June 2026), not a survey of current prices: it is an estimate for comparing cities, not a budget. For Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Ecuador, Nepal, Madagascar, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Belize, Honduras, Bulgaria, Tonga, Uruguay, Rwanda and Vanuatu, the cost index is a country-level estimate from World Bank indicators, calibrated to our other countries' figures. Source: The World Bank (World Development Indicators, Worldwide Governance Indicators), CC BY 4.0.

Benefit: the SSA average for an aged couple, both receiving benefits, in January 2027 (US$3,355). We deduct no US or local tax from it and apply no exchange-rate change after the dates above.

This table compares published minimums with an average. It is not financial, tax or immigration advice: rules and thresholds change, so check with the consulate or immigration office before you apply.