According to research published in the journal Psychology and Aging, scientists at the University of Groningen surveyed retired emigrants and a control group of retired people in the Netherlands. They found that the emigrants felt lonelier in their social environment.

Since old age is also a risk factor for loneliness, which can have negative consequences for health, retired migrants may be doubly at risk, said study lead author Esma Betül Savaş.

She recommended that people planning to emigrate upon retirement should consider how they can maintain their social ties at home and gain new ones abroad.

Savaş and her team surveyed almost 5,000 emigrated pensioners and close to 1,400 pensioners who stayed at home, asking them, among other things, whether they felt lonely and what their relationships with family, friends, and neighbours were like.

The experts distinguished between emotional loneliness, caused by a lack of close friends or a life partner, and social loneliness, caused by a lack of a social environment or sense of community.

The fact that pensioners abroad miss the social aspect is because they usually emigrated with a spouse or partner, therefore maintaining emotional ties.

However, the study also showed that retired migrants felt socially and emotionally lonely when they lost contact with good friends and family at home.

According to the research, the most popular countries for retirement among Dutch and German respondents were Austria, Switzerland, Spain, the US, and France.