2016’s Best and Worst States To Retire

Based on affordability, health factors, such as hospital rankings, number of physicians and quality of life.

Retirement might be the end of the line, but it doesn’t have to be the end of financial security or life satisfaction. For many of us, our primary concern with retirement is timing, which often coincides with the age at which we become eligible to receive Social Security or pension benefits. Hopefully the choice will be ours and not dictated by our circumstances — the unfortunate case for nearly a third of nonretirees who haven’t put away a single penny for retirement, though not necessarily through any fault of their own.

But in addition to when you want to retire, you might want to ask yourself where. That can be an awfully difficult question to answer if you haven’t adequately planned — or been able to plan — for the rest of your life. Even in the most affordable areas of the U.S., retirees often cannot rely on their Social Security or pension checks alone to cover all of their living expenses. Social Security benefits increase progressively with local inflation, but they replace only about 40 percent of the amount you earned if you were an average worker, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

If retirement is still a big question mark for you because of finances, we recommend you consider relocating to a retirement-friendly state — one that will let you keep more money in your pocket without drastically modifying your lifestyle. WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 24 key metrics to help you find that permanent, and affordable, place to call home when you’re ready to leave the workforce. Of course, affordability shouldn’t be your only priority in retirement, which is why our analysis also explores health-related factors and overall quality of life. Scroll down for the results.

Overall Rank	State	Total Score out of 100
1	Florida	70.75
2	Wyoming	67.09
3	South Dakota	66.62
4	South Carolina	62.50
5	Colorado	62.23
6	Idaho	62.19
7	Texas	61.85
8	Montana	61.39
9	Nevada	61.19
10	Virginia	61.06
11	Arizona	61.01
12	Pennsylvania	60.41
13	Iowa	59.86
14	Missouri	59.07
15	California	59.01
16	Delaware	58.68
17	Michigan	58.36
18	Wisconsin	58.31
19	Oklahoma	58.00
20	Georgia	57.84
21	Minnesota	57.80
22	North Carolina	57.58
23	Utah	57.26
24	Washington	57.11
25	Louisiana	57.07
26	Tennessee	56.80
27	Ohio	56.12
28	Mississippi	55.99
29	Oregon	55.80
30	Maine	55.69
31	Illinois	55.57
32	New Mexico	55.42
33	Kansas	54.94
34	Indiana	54.25
35	Alabama	54.07
36	North Dakota	54.06
37	Nebraska	53.95
38	New Hampshire	52.60
39	Massachusetts	52.59
40	Arkansas	52.15
41	Kentucky	51.73
42	Maryland	51.25
43	Alaska	50.99
44	New York	50.46
45	West Virginia	49.79
46	New Jersey	49.54
47	Vermont	47.58
48	Connecticut	46.65
49	Hawaii	46.17
50	District of Columbia	43.97
51	Rhode Island	36.95