A majority of non-retired Americans will have to strategize how to stretch their budget as far as possible once they leave the workforce due to shortfalls in their retirement savings.

For many, where to live out their retirement years will be a major consideration, according to a recent study from the personal finance website WalletHub. The best states for retirees, it said, have low taxes and cost of living, as well as excellent medical care and homemaking services, which is crucial for those who will not be close to their families.

The worst ones fall short in many of these critical areas.

In order to identify the most and least retirement-friendly states, WalletHub compared the 50 states across these three key dimensions:

  • Affordability, including adjusted cost of living, retired taxpayer friendliness and share of population 65 and older who could not afford a doctor visit
  • Quality of life, including share of the population that is 65 and older, mildness of weather, access to public transportation, risk of social isolation, elderly food insecurity rate and elderly volunteer rate
  • Health care, including family medicine physicians per capita, quality of public hospitals, share of population 65 and older who are obese and life expectancy
Researchers evaluated those dimensions using 46 relevant metrics, and graded each one on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for retirement.

The slideshow above illustrates the 12 worst states for retirement in 2025, according to WalletHub.

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