A new examination of more than 180 U.S. cities for retirement friendliness — including healthcare quality, cost and access — finds a number of mid-sized cities in the lead.
The 2022 rankings of 182 cities for retirement quality come from Wallethub, which looked at four key dimensions: affordability (25 points), activities (25 points), quality of life (25 points) and healthcare (25 points). The dimensions were evaluated using 46 metrics, including retired taxpayer friendliness, annual cost of adult day healthcare, availability of volunteer activities, walk score, quality of public hospital and healthcare facilities per capita.
Some insights into the rankings and scores:
- Charleston, S.C., ranks No. 1 overall with a score of 58.97, coming into 21st place for affordability, 15th place for activities, 75th place for quality of life and 48th place for healthcare.
- South Burlington, Vt., ranked No. 1 for the healthcare dimension; Columbus, Ga., ranked last for healthcare.
- Healthcare and affordability are at odds for several states. For instance, Boston ranks No. 10 for healthcare, but 178 for affordability. Memphis, Tenn. ranks No. 6 for affordability but 168 for healthcare.
Below are the top 15 cities and bottom 15 cities. The complete ranking and scoring can be found here.
The best
1. Charleston, S.C.
2. Orlando, Fla.
3. Cincinnati
4. Miami
5. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
6. San Francisco
7. Scottsdale, Ariz.
8. Wilmington, Del.
9. Tampa, Fla.
10. Salt Lake City
11. Casper, Wyo.
12. Minneapolis
13. Atlanta
14. Denver
15. St. Petersburg, Fla.
The worst
168. Salem, Ore.
169. Warwick, R.I.
170. Tacoma, Wash.
171. Aurora, Ill.
172. Spokane, Wash.
173. Lubbock, Texas
174. Wichita, Kan.
175. Baltimore
176. Vancouver, Wash.
177. Detroit
178. Stockton, Calif.
179. Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
180. San Bernardino, Calif.
181. Newark, N.J.
182. Bridgeport, Ct.