Top Ten Best and Worst States to Retire

There are a few surprises in WalletHub’s latest release of the best and worst states to retire (Hawaii at No. 42, really?). Yet with almost 30 percent of all non-retired adults having no retirement savings or pension, it’s increasingly important to choose the right locale to make the dollars last.

“To help retirees find a safe, enjoyable and wallet-friendly place to call home, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 41 key metrics,” the consumer finance site reported. “The dataset ranges from the adjusted cost of living to weather to the quality of public hospitals.”

Highlights—or lowlights, depending on perspective—include Mississippi has the lowest adjusted cost-of-living index for retirees, 84.91, which is 2.2 times lower than in Hawaii, where it is highest at 185.73.

Louisiana has the lowest median annual cost of elderly housekeeping, $34,320, which is 1.9 times lower than in North Dakota, where it is highest at $63,972.

Alaska has the highest share of the population aged 65 and older still working, 23.01 percent, which is 1.8 times higher than in West Virginia, where it is lowest at 12.56 percent.

Florida has the highest share of the population aged 65 and older, 19.1 percent, which is two times higher than in Alaska, where it is lowest at 9.4 percent.

“Even in the most affordable areas of the U.S., most retirees cannot rely on Social Security or pension checks alone to cover all of their living expenses,” WalletHub notes. “Social Security benefits increase with local inflation, but they replace only about 40 percent of the average worker’s earnings.”

Here are the best and worst:

Best States to Retire

1 Florida

2 Colorado

3 South Dakota

4 Iowa

5 Virginia

6 Wyoming

7 New Hampshire

8 Idaho

9 Utah

10 Arizona

 Worst States to Retire

41 Alabama

42 Hawaii

43 New Mexico

44 Louisiana

45 West Virginia

46 Arkansas

47 Mississippi

48 Rhode Island

49 New Jersey

50 Kentucky