Malaysia is the safest place to retire for under US$2,000 (S$2,640) a month, according to a list released by Nasdaq-run GOBankingRates last week.

The country beat out the likes of Kuwait (No. 2) and Mongolia (No. 3) in the list that ranked the top 10 places to retire abroad for Americans.

Vietnam and Indonesia took fourth and fifth place respectively, while Jordan, Cambodia, Oman, Cyprus and Nepal placed in the rest of the list that featured Asian and Middle Eastern countries.

GOBankingRates, a personal finance publication run by United States-based financial services corporation Nasdaq, said it sought to find the safest places to retire that also have “affordable average monthly expenditures”.

To do so, it pulled data from the United Nations Pacific-Asia Region Group, gross domestic product (GDP) figures from World Population Review, and cost of living figures from global database Numbeo.

It also drew on the results of the Global Peace Index 2022 report – which measures the relative position of nations’ and regions’ peacefulness – released by the Institute for Economics and Peace. Countries needed to have a global peace index of under 2.0 to qualify, the report said.

The results were then filtered for places where the cost of living is US$2,000 and less per month on average.

Malaysia took the top spot with its average monthly cost of living at US$1,066 and global peace index ranking of 1.471.

“With average monthly expenses at just over US$1,000, it’s an excellent place for retirees to consider,” said GOBankingRates, which listed the country’s GDP as US$481.9 trillion.

Kuwait, which was pipped to the top spot, has an average monthly cost of living of US$1,741 and a global peace index of 1.739.

The publication said that while Kuwait’s cost of living index, at 37.4, is not as low as some of the other countries on this list, its overall cost of living, combined with its global peace index score, “make it a great place to retire”.

Rounding off the top three was Mongolia, which has an average monthly cost of living at US$940 and global peace index of 1.775. While its cost of living index is tied for the lowest on the list with Indonesia at 20.2, the publication noted that its GDP is also the lowest on the list, at US$21 trillion.

10 safest places to retire abroad for Americans according to GOBankingRates:

1. Malaysia
2. Kuwait
3. Mongolia
4. Vietnam
5. Indonesia
6. Jordan
7. Cambodia
8. Oman
9. Cyprus
10. Nepal