Americans deserve to retire in a place that offers both a high quality of life and a wide variety of cultural and entertainment activities. So what are the best states to retire in?
Connecticut, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, South Carolina, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Kentucky and Michigan round out the top 10.
Virginia was just outside the top 10 – ranking #11. The ranking is due to its multiple retirement housing offerings, its number of available nurses as well as its high-quality public hospitals.
The analysis was conducted by market research firm TOP Data.
38 metrics were organized into five key categories:
- Affordability: Cost of living, inheritance tax, social security income tax, in-home healthcare cost, home value, geriatric care cost, elderly living in poverty, state income taxes
- Entertainment: Museums, RV parks, theaters, bingo halls, golf courses, restaurants, malls, casinos
- Healthcare: Available nurses, retirement houses, quality of public hospitals, physically active seniors, life expectancy, hospice care quality, geriatric providers, preventive clinical services, uninsured rate for 65+, Medicaid per capita expenditures
- Safety: Eldercare organizations and services, deaths from older adult falls, crimes on the elderly, money lost on crimes committed against seniors, violent crimes
- Wellness: Air quality, weather, access to nature, drinking water violations, non-smoking regulations, food insecurity
Here are the rankings for Virginia by category in the “Best States to Retire” study:
- #9 Entertainment
- #14 Healthcare
- #22 Wellness
- #23 Affordability
- #30 Safety
To view the full report, click here.