A recent study ranked the worst and the best places to retire for women, and gave Hawaii the top spot and New York the bottom-most.
In addition to Hawaii’s general gorgeousness, its great health care services and opportunities for women (not to mention the weather) offset the higher-than-average cost of living enough to keep the island in the No. 1 slot.
Expert Market’s research reveals that fun-in-the-sun places often associated with retirement have their drawbacks if your goal is to enjoy a comfortable and sustainable retirement. While their top pick, Hawaii, is renowned for its sunny climes, retiree meccas Florida and Arizona don’t come close to making our top 10.
There are lots of studies out there saying where you should live in retirement. Only Expert Market’s study celebrates the states where women are faring best – and where women can find the best opportunities relative to where they live. The analysts compared the 50 states on several metrics, including the average salary for women, female unemployment rate, share of women-owned businesses, women’s life expectancy and the prevalence of gendered crime.
To identify the best places to retire for women, Expert Market compared the 50 states across these three key areas:
- Quality of Life
- Affordability
- Health Care
Here are the states that came out on top.
Best States to Retire for Women
1. Hawaii
2. New Hampshire
3. Tennessee
4. Iowa
5. Delaware
6. Oregon
7. Vermont
8. North Dakota
9. Maine
10. Arizona
Fans of the Big Apple, beware. New York is the officially the worst place to be if you’re a woman in retirement. New York scored poorly across the board. What makes New York deserving of the bottom spot? Its high taxes combined with its eye-wateringly high cost of living. Despite the state’s liberal leanings, New York also scored well below average on women’s opportunities and wellbeing metric, which rendered it 2018’s worst place for women to retire. Here are the bottom 10.
Worst States to Retire for Women
1. New York
2. Illinois
3. Alaska
4. Mississippi
5. New Jersey
6. Louisiana
7. Wyoming
8. Connecticut
9. Washington
10. Indiana
Other ranking factors to identify the best places to retire included weather, cost of living, size of elderly population, health care quality and affordability, state of the economy, state tax friendliness and women’s economic opportunities and wellbeing scores.
Read on more on learnvest.com and expertmarket.com.
