BERLIN, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Record numbers of German pensioners are spending their retirement living outside of Germany, the German Pension Insurance Association (DRV) announced on Tuesday.
Around 240,000 pensions have recently been transferred to Germans who live outside of Germany, according to the DRV, which transfers around 22.9 million pensions to retired Germans every year.
"In the last 10 years alone, around 50,000 foreign payments have been added," according to DRV spokesperson Dirk Manthey.
The most popular destinations for Germans to retire include Austria, Switzerland, Spain, the United States and Australia.
According to the DRV, the number of German pensioners who choose to move to traditional "paradise" destinations is much smaller in comparison.
Less than 50 German pensioners live on small "dream islands" in the Pacific, such as Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, the DRV said.
In contrast, southeastern Europe, with a comparatively low cost of living, is becoming increasingly popular among German pensioners, according to the DRV.
The number of German pensioners living in countries such as Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria and Greece has doubled in 10 years to around 10,000.
According to the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), Bulgaria has the lowest cost of living out of all countries in the European Union (EU).
In Bulgaria, consumers on average pay about half as much for the usual products and services in other EU member states, although imported goods, such as pasta, cheese, clothing or shoes, are often much more expensive than in Germany, Destatis noted.
Germans could generally claim their "pension abroad at any time without any problems" anywhere around the world, according to DRV spokesperson Manthey.
