10 Best & Worst States for Retirement

Choosing the best place to spend your retirement years can be difficult. There are so many factors to consider: cost of living, matching your desired lifestyle and closeness to family and friends.

There are lots of ways to slice and dice the data. In the past, we’ve looked at international places and offbeat, inexpensive places to spend post-work years.

Now we turn our attention to Bankrate.com’s ranking of all 50 states. We’ve included the Top 10 and Bottom 10 in the rankings, which were based on several factors. They include taxes paid as a percentage of state income; cost of living based on data from the Council for Community and Economic Research (the higher the score the more expensive the state); health care quality, from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (the higher the score the better the health care); and the percentage of days the sun shines brightly.

Here is the countdown of the 10 worst retirement states, followed by those who rated highest:

10 Worst States for Retirement

10. Kentucky

Cost of Living: 90.9

Tax Burden: 9.5%

Health care Quality: 34.6

Possible Sunshine: 54.7%

 

9. Maryland

Cost of Living: 116.5

Tax Burden: 10.6%

Health care Quality: 42.2

Possible Sunshine: 57%

 

8. Oklahoma

Cost of Living: 90.5

Tax Burden: 8.5%

Health care Quality: 34.6

Possible Sunshine: 61%

 

7. Louisiana

Cost of Living: 95.8

Tax Burden: 7.6%

Health care Quality: 35.2

Possible Sunshine: 64.3%

 

6. Alabama

Cost of Living: 93.4

Tax Burden: 8.3%

Health care Quality: 39.4

Possible Sunshine: 57.7%

5. Hawaii

Cost of Living: 158.1

Tax Burden: 9.6%

Health care Quality: 49.7

Possible Sunshine: 59.3%

4. Arkansas

Cost of Living: 91.5

Tax Burden: 10.3%

Health care Quality: 36.5

Possible Sunshine: 65%

3. Alaska

Cost of Living: 135.3

Tax Burden: 7%

Health care Quality: 38.1

Possible Sunshine: 37.7%

2. West Virginia

Cost of Living: 97

Tax Burden: 9.7%

Health care Quality: 32.8

Possible Sunshine: 40%

 

1. New York

Cost of Living: 129.1

Tax Burden: 12.6%

Health care Quality: 46.1

Possible Sunshine: 50.8%

10 Best States for Retirement