Best and Worst Cities for Retirement In the U.S

Analysts for WalletHub recently surveyed our nation's 150 most populated cities for four attributes retirees typically seek when considering where to retire: (i) affordability, (ii) activities, (iii) quality of life, and (iv) health care (the Survey). The analysts utilized 40 different metrics, grading each on a 100-point scale, with 100 being the most favorable. The cities were then ranked by their total point score, with a rank of 1 being the best and a rank of 150 being the worst. Based on this ranking, the top ten cities for retirement were:

1 Orlando, Florida
2 Tampa, Florida
3 Miami, Florida
4 Scottsdale, Arizona
5 Atlanta, Georgia
6 Salt Lake City, Utah
7 Honolulu, Hawaii
8 Denver, Colorado
9 Austin, Texas
10 Las Vegas, Nevada

The bottom ten cities for retirement were:

141 Rancho Cucamonga, California
142 Fontana, California
143 Modesto, California
144 Stockton, California
145 Fresno, California
146 Detroit, Michigan
147 Worcester, Massachusetts
148 San Bernardino, California
149 Providence, Rhode Island
150 Newwark, New Jersey

Again, these were overall rankings. Many retirees, however, are on fixed or limited incomes. Therefore, they might like to know that the ten most affordable cities were:

1 Laredo, Texas
2 Brownsville, Texas
3 St. Petersburg, Florida
4 Montgomery, Alabama
5 San Antonio, Texas
6 Memphis, Tennessee
7 Tampa, Florida
8 Orlando, Florida
9 Lubbock, Texas
10 Knoxville, Tennessee

And the ten least affordable cities were:

140 Anaheim, Santa Ana, and Irvine, California [each ranked 140 for affordability; no city was ranked 141 or 142 for affordability]
143 Santa Rosa, California
144 San Francisco, California
145 San Jose, California
146 Boston, Massachusetts
147 Yonkers, New York
148 Oakland, California
149 Freemont, California
150 New York, New York

It is important to remember that the Survey looked at only our nation's 150 most populated cities. It is entirely possible that the retirement attributes you seek (e.g., affordability, activities, quality of life, health care) are right where you are or in a city less populated than any of the Survey cities.

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