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Charted: Best States for Retirement vs Where Retirees Are Moving
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Lists of the best places for retirement—whether around the world or in the U.S.—are always hotly contested. Experts and financial advisors use various metrics to arrive at their conclusions. Readers weigh in with their experiences. There’s always very little consensus.
In one of the most recent lists, we visualized how Bankrate ranked the best states for retirement. But there’s what the data analysis says, and then there’s what the hard data says—that is, where are retirees actually moving?
This chart compares the states considered best for retirement (source linked to above) versus the top states by older adult net migration numbers (sourced from SmartAsset).
Best U.S. States to Retire In
Bankrate’s analysis and SmartAsset’s migration data found only three states in common: Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
| Rank | Bankrate’s Best For Retirement |
Older Adults Moving Here |
Net Retiree Migration (2024) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Delaware | Florida | +77,290 |
| 2 | West Virginia | Arizona | +23,515 |
| 3 | Georgia | South Carolina | +20,895 |
| 4 | South Carolina | Texas | +18,742 |
| 5 | Missouri | North Carolina | +11,339 |
| 6 | Mississippi | Georgia | +10,235 |
| 7 | Pennsylvania | Alabama | +8,593 |
| 8 | Florida | Tennessee | +8,329 |
| 9 | Iowa | Nevada | +6,091 |
| 10 | Wyoming | Kentucky | +5,878 |
Bankrate’s study judged all 50 states by five key metrics with different weights: affordability (40%), well-being (25%), healthcare (20%), weather (10%), and crime (5%). Their top picks: Delaware, West Virginia, and Georgia, were all heavily favored for their affordability.
Meanwhile, the top states by net migration of older adults are: Florida, Arizona, and South Carolina.
Perhaps most interesting is that Bankrate put Texas and North Dakota in their bottom 10 states to retire in—docking points for well-being and healthcare. However, by migration numbers, Texas and North Dakota rank fourth and fifth respectively.
So what are these discrepancies telling us? One explanation could be that experts are underrating how much weather is playing a part in where older adults move. Except for Kentucky, all of the top 10 by migration can be considered “warm” states—hot summers and mild winters.
Affordability might also be given a much larger consideration by financial advisors. For example, Florida ranked 8th in Bankrate’s analysis only losing points for its higher cost of living. But for retirees, the hot, humid summers seem worth the additional costs they have to bear.
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Check out Statista’s The Generational Savings Divide in the U.S. to see how asset classes change in popularity depending on how old one is.