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RETIREMENT
States ranked from first to worst on retirement
By Chris Kahn • Bankrate.com

Retirement » States ranked from first to worst on retirement

Bankrate's "Best and Worst States to Retire" list ranks all 50 states according to their cost of living, crime rate (violent and property crimes), health care quality, state and local tax burden, personal well-being for seniors and weather (temperature, percentage of sunshine, humidity). The overall ranks of 1 to 50 go from best to worst. For more on how we ranked the states, check out our story "How we ranked Best & Worst States to Retire."

Choose columns to display
Check out how your state ranks for retirement
Overall rank State Cost of living Crime rate Community well-being Health care quality Tax rate Weather
1 Wyoming 19 5 20 37 1 8
2 Colorado 30 25 6 14 19 3
3 Utah 7 22 19 7 23 6
4 Idaho 3 2 27 21 27 7
5 Virginia 22 4 15 13 21 10
6 Iowa 11 12 4 5 22 39
7 Montana 27 19 8 24 13 9
8 South Dakota 26 11 31 15 3 29
9 Arizona 32 41 2 22 17 5
10 Nebraska 9 20 16 11 26 21
11 Minnesota 33 15 5 1 45 48
12 Maine 38 3 28 4 37 27
13 North Dakota 29 10 23 16 15 43
14 Kansas 10 32 13 25 25 17
15 Vermont 41 1 3 10 42 35
16 New Hampshire 39 7 17 6 7 49
17 Wisconsin 25 13 21 3 46 46
18 Massachusetts 43 21 22 2 40 11
19 Delaware 37 42 7 8 36 18
20 Michigan 18 29 14 17 30 45
21 Pennsylvania 34 16 36 23 41 22
22 Washington 36 36 9 19 24 40
23 Texas 14 38 37 41 4 23
24 North Carolina 28 33 30 30 34 19
25 South Carolina 24 48 26 35 (tie) 9 16
26 Illinois 21 24 32 32 38 36
27 Nevada 35 44 45 43 8 4
28 Florida 31 39 18 35 (tie) 20 28
29 Indiana 5 30 34 40 29 34
30 Tennessee 2 47 40 38 (tie) 6 24
31 California 46 31 10 34 47 2
32 Maryland 40 34 11 27 44 13
33 Georgia 15 35 33 42 16 20
34 Ohio 17 27 41 31 33 37
35 Alabama 12 43 35 33 10 41
36 Mississippi 1 23 44 47 11 42
37 New Mexico 13 50 38 48 14 1
38 Rhode Island 42 18 46 9 43 12
39 Connecticut 48 6 24 12 48 14
40 Oklahoma 4 40 29 49 12 26
41 Oregon 44 28 12 29 35 31
42 Missouri 16 37 39 38 (tie) 18 38
43 Kentucky 6 9 49 45 (tie) 28 33
44 Hawaii 50 26 1 20 31 32
45 New Jersey 45 8 43 18 49 15
46 Louisiana 20 49 48 45 (tie) 5 44
47 West Virginia 23 14 50 50 32 47
48 Alaska 49 46 25 28 2 50
49 New York 47 17 42 26 50 25
50 Arkansas 8 45 47 44 39 30
Sources: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; Healthways; the Council for Community and Economic Research; the FBI; the Tax Foundation; and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


Read more: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/retirement/best-places-retire-how-state-ranks.aspx#ixzz3VEbiBPjb
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Compiled by the dart board method.

LostHighway: I disagree with the "rankings" order!
How about you?
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

The Philippines sound like a good bet.

http://www.expatexchange.com/ctryguide/3507/90/Philippines/Retiring-and-Living--In-the-Philippines

Good question dunno for sure. Though I wasn't surprised to see WV at the bottom due to an earlier gallup poll ranked them last in resident happiness. Been through there once seem nice enough. Same poll had Alaska at the top, but high cost living and weather placed them at the bottom. I would of thought New Mexico would of been higher. Nice place especially around Taos, though few jobs.

Look about right to me

useless friggen list. but i love that ny is close to the bottom. poor arkansas. i gotta doubt its worse than mississippi having lived in both.

seems very subjective to me. I live in Northern Virginia & find it hard to believe a #5 ranking. Northern Virginia, the Tidewater area, & Richmond have all gone liberal. The rural & South Western parts of the state still retain traditional values, but are out voted by the liberal majority. I have a vacation home in North Carolina & would rate most of this state far better than Virginia.

how did the rank weather? South Dakota has better weather than Hawaii? Arkansas has been winning some best place to retire rankings.

spose it depends upon what you want out of retirement

me personally? seeing very few folks and when I do they better be some version of redneck

Or at least not far off. Some of the top are really not-so-hidden gems.

28th my azz. We are so overrun with retirees. This list is bogus.

Anybody who retires here needs to plan on driving to Colorado for health care. Other than that, one could do a lot worse.

I'm leaving #2 for #42, and glad to do it. Cost of living will drop by a third, liberal oppression will lighten up, I'll still have 4 seasons but the long one will be warm instead of cold, there are more accessible opportunities for outdoor activities more of the time. I've lived in both states already, and that list must be about city life.

Retirement for me is all about where I want to chase my "wind mills," and answering the question, "What daily routine would make me happy." All else being equal, and Lord willing, we are only talking about a short 10-20 year period at the end of our life here on earth. Happiness and contentment is at the top of my list and that includes wind mills and daily routine.

Alaska is shown as having next to the best cost of living. Gotta doubt that.

Iowa is rated #6, but all the old folks leave in the winter, if they can.

Retiring to a Caliphate? No thanks

List is bogus major league bogus ...a lot more variables are being introduced then is mentioned in the article for that to be true.

Cost of living Tax rate Health care quality Weather

Use those four columns and heavily weight the cost of living and tax rate . I don't know of anyone that plans on retiring to a "bad area" or ghetto so who gives a [bleep] about the crime rate?

Spread sheets are hard to copy and paste for the columns get out of wack and tricky to read. Hawaii and Alaska are rated as having the highest cost of living. Ms and TN have the lowest cost of living. The link is much clearer.
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/retirement/best-places-retire-how-state-ranks.aspx

Bogus list. If you have no money and poor health, retirement is going to suck no matter where you're at.

If you've managed to save a few bucks and still have your health, you need to choose a spot that will allow you to live out your life as you see fit. IMHO health care would be one of the last things that would factor in for me, I'm more concerned with how I'm living out the last of my days, rather then concentrating on how I'm dying.