Tax-advantaged retirement accounts can help savers build a nest egg to complement Social Security benefits, which are rarely sufficient to cover expenses in retirement, such as costs for health care and aging, SmartAsset noted in a report released this week.
Americans have about a year's worth of their current annual income, on average, saved in tax-advantaged accounts, according to the report. That figure hovers around $80,000 for most households, although it may not reflect real purchasing power because different accounts and investments are taxed differently at the time of distribution.
To find out where Americans have the most and least retirement savings, SmartAsset ranked the 40 states with available data by average household retirement savings, including comparisons to household income and a breakdown of retirement-account preferences.
Researchers took household retirement data from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2023, published July 2025, and median household income data from the U.S. Census Bureau 1-Year American Community Survey for 2024.
The 10 states with insufficient data to be included in the rankings were Alaska, Delaware, Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wyoming.
See the accompanying gallery for the 12 states with the highest average retirement savings.
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