Updated May 2025

Retirees have many options when they decide whether and where to relocate. Some decide to remain in their family home. Some cash in their home equity by downsizing while remaining in the same community. Some move closer to their adult children. Some move to a retirement community. Retirees who need care might opt for an assisted-living facility.

Based on several sources, SeniorCareAdvice compiled a list of cities and towns that have been rated as attractive retirement destinations. Several of those cities, including destinations recommended by WalletHub, were in Florida.

What Retirement Destination Is Best for You?

“Best” is in the eye of the beholder. Different retirees have different reasons for selecting their retirement destinations. Setting aside reasons that are unique to each retiree, including a desire to live near family and friends, WalletHub measures “best” by reference to certain objective criteria. How retirees weigh the importance of each factor is a matter of personal preference.

WalletHub identified 46 factors relevant to the quality of a retiree’s life. It assigned a relative weight to each factor. The factors fall within three categories: affordability, quality of life, and healthcare. Affordability factors determined 40% of a state’s final score. The other categories each accounted for 30% of the total.

Other factors included the friendliness of the labor market to older workers, social isolation, the state’s poverty rate and food insecurity rate, access to public transportation and scenic byways, crime rates, access to volunteer opportunities, elderly volunteer rate, neighborhood friendliness, elder-abuse protections, expenditures captured by the Administration on Aging per Population Aged 60 and over, air and water quality, and the per capita number of theaters, museums, country clubs, golf courses, and bingo halls.

The most important health care metrics include whether the state has enough geriatricians to meet demand, the number of highly rated geriatric hospitals,  the quality of public hospitals, and the number of doctors/dentists/nurses/home health aides per capita. Other factors include the overall quality of health of older residents, how older residents rate on a well-being index, life expectancy, the percentage of older adults who are physically active or obese or have inadequate sleep, and senior death rates.

The most important health care metrics include whether the state has enough geriatricians to meet demand, the number of highly rated geriatric hospitals, the number of doctors per capita, and the percentage of the population vaccinated against COVID. Other factors include the overall quality of health of older residents, how older residents rate on a well-being index, the availability of home health aides, the percentage of older adults who are physically active or obese, and senior death rates.

Not every metric that WalletHub used will be of equal importance to every senior. Not every retiree will care about museums or bingo halls. Healthy and active retirees might not have a need for in-home care or adult daycare facilities, although needs can change over time. If most of the metrics strike a senior as being irrelevant to their decision about the best place to retire, the WalletHub analysis should be taken with a grain of salt. If some factors seem of particular importance to a retiree’s decision, the retiree might want to dig more deeply into the data that underlies those factors.

WalletHub’s Best Retirement States

According to WalletHub, the five states with the highest and lowest overall scores are:

1. Florida
2. Minnesota
3. Colorado
4. Wyoming
5. South Dakota

46. New Mexico
47. Washington
48. Mississippi
49. Louisiana
50. Kentucky

The five states with the best and worse affordability scores are:

1. Wyoming
2. Florida
3. Alabama
4. Delaware
5. Nevada

46. New Jersey
47. New York
48. Washington
49. Massachusetts
50. Hawaii

The five states with the best and worst quality of life scores are:

1. Maine
2. Florida
3. Wyoming
4. Massachusetts
5. Pennsylvania

46. Louisiana
47. Oklahoma
48. Tennessee
49. Arkansas
50. Mississippi

The five states with the best and worst healthcare scores are:

1. Minnesota
2. Massachusetts
3. Colorado
4. South Dakota
5. California

46. Tennessee
47. Mississippi
48. Louisiana
49. Alabama
50. West Virginia

Perhaps it isn’t surprising that the most affordable states tend to have a lower ranking for quality of life and healthcare. Life is full of tradeoffs. Retiring seniors should consider how to balance the cost of living in a new location with their desire to live a good life and their need for quality healthcare.

Retirees with specific needs should dig into the data more deeply. Both Florida and Wyoming have high ratings for affordability and quality of life but rank in the middle in terms of health care. Lists like these are only rough guides. Retirees may want to compile their own top five destinations after assigning greater weight to the factors that are most important to their lives.

(This article has been updated May 2025 since it originally published April 2023.)