Retirement security in the U.S. took a significant hit in a global ranking, falling three notches to No. 17 among 43 developed countries. 

The fifth annual Global Retirement Index ranking from Natixis Global Asset Management has Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland holding on to the top three slots from 2016. The ranking creates an overall retirement security score for each country from 18 performance indicators that address finances, healthcare, material well-being, and quality of life. Countries are also ranked by those four sub-indexes. 

Of the 25 countries with the highest overall scores, the U.S. and Austria saw the biggest annual declines this year. The U.S. score is 72 out of 100, which puts it right below Belgium and the Czech Republic and just above the United Kingdom and France. The U.S. had the sixth-lowest score for income equality, which is part of the score for material well-being. That measure, designed to show how well a country's population can provide for its material needs, combines an income per capita index, income inequality index, and unemployment index.

When scores are tallied by region, the U.S. and Canada rank higher than western Europe, with scores of 73 percent and 70 percent, respectively. The U.S. was No. 10 on the finances sub-index, largely thanks to improvements in bank non-performing loans, as well as its level of federal debt relative to other countries. But the regional win is largely due to the financial struggles in Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Canada ranks at No. 11 in the country rankings, down one notch from 2016, with a score of 76 percent.

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