I would estimate that 50% to 60% of the expats in Granada, Nicaragua are retirees. We also have a lot of expats in Granada with small businesses, perhaps a restaurant or bed and breakfast. We have a fair amount of people who are involved with non-governmental organizations (“NGOs”; charities). As part of this group, we have a lot of people who are connected with medical charities in the United States who come here to Nicaragua to treat the populace for free. These organizations do a lot of operations and a lot of medical examinations. Some years ago I was involved as a translator.
The vast majority of expats in Granada (maybe 75% or so) are Americans. There are also Canadians, and a fair amount of Europeans—Italians, Dutch.
As far as the type of people who become expats in Granada, many are people who want to “live outside the box” a bit. It’s a special kind of person who would live in Granada, especially an American who decides to live outside of the US. Unlike Europeans, Americans tend not to be multi-lingual, while for the most part, Europeans are.
I’ve lived in Europe and Asia and of course Nicaragua, and my view is that the Americans who decide to live outside the US are a little bit different; more adventurous in some respects.
Here in Granada, unfortunately, depending on their age, many Americans are a little bit resistant to learning another language, but in other cases you see that, after a couple of years, many of them do pick up a basic understanding and try to interact with the Nicaraguans in their own language.
Many of the American expats in Granada don’t speak Spanish. When I came here, that would have been a problem, because so few Nicaraguans spoke English that I had no choice but to learn Spanish. Now, that’s no longer the case. Over the years, as tourism has grown in Nicaragua and many American expats have moved in, many of the local Nicaraguans here speak English. Now, its easier to live here in Granada and not speak Spanish.