UK's retirement capital is seaside town where one in three locals are pensioners

08 November 2023 , 23:22

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Scarborough in Yorkshire is known for its sandy beaches and castle (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Elderly Britons are flocking to coastal havens and leaving the bustle of big cities behind, data from the Office of National Statistics shows.

But one place has a higher proportion of pensioners than any other, earning it the nickname of ‘the UK’s retirement capital’. Scarborough has almost one in three residents aged 65 or older, making the North Yorkshire town the UK’s number one place for retirees.

It sits alongside other coastal towns that prove popular with the older generation, including North Norfolk, in particular the area bordering the famous Norfolk Broads that sees specific parts peak at 33.7 percent of the population over the age of 65. That’s followed by Rother (32.6 per cent), the home of Camber, Rye and Battle on England’s south coast, and East Lindsey (30.6 per cent) in Lincolnshire. The list also includes Conwy (27.4 per cent) in north Wales and Chichester in Sussex. (27.3 per cent).

Statistics have also highlighted how quickly the United Kingdom’s elderly population is growing. Whilst a decade ago little more than 33 percent of local authorities presided over areas where a fifth of the population was 65 or over, today that number has shot up to 51.5 percent.

It’s a stark comparison to some of the UK’s biggest and busiest cities, including in Manchester where the percentage of people over the age of 65 is just 9.6 percent. In the London borough of Tower Hamlets this figure sinks even lower still to 5.6 percent of residents.

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Steve Wilkie, executive chairman at equity release specialists Responsible Life, said: “There’s been an explosion in the number of areas where retirees account for a much greater than average proportion of the population. Many pensioners are evidently making more deliberate decisions about where they want to live in retirement, reflecting a generational shift in behaviour.”

Jake Loader