10 worst states for retirement

By Michael S. Fischer | July 23, 2020 at 08:15 AM

41. Montana

2019 rank: 35

Crime ranking: 377.1
Cost of living ranking: 106.3
Pop. 60 and older: 24.3%
Avg. property prices: $288,867
Life expectancy: 78.5
(Photo: Shutterstock)

As more Americans live longer, thanks to improved health care, medicines and lifestyle changes, they are thinking about where they would like to live out the rest of their lives. Some states are much less desirable retirement destinations than others, according to a new report from Blacktower Financial Management Group. Blacktower ranked the 50 states according to their desirability for retirement, based on several criteria that are certain to influence people's decision. The rankings are an updated version of the firm's 2019 study. Researchers calculated the index first by normalizing the data categories individually from 0 to 1 and then summing the results:

Crime: the state with the highest rate of crime (per 100,000) would be weighted closer to 0
Cost of living: the state with the highest cost (on a 100-point scale) is weighted closer to 0
Population 60 and older: lower percentage of population is weighted closer to 0
Property prices: higher property prices are weighted down
Life expectancy: lower expectancy longevity is weighted down

Most of the 10 worst states for retirement maintained their 2019 positions at the bottom of the rankings. Some had especially high crime rates, others expensive housing and still others too small a population of older people. See the gallery above for the 10 worst states for retirement. READ MORE:

NOT FOR REPRINT

Michael S. Fischer is a longtime contributing writer for ThinkAdvisor. He previously reported on trade and intellectual property topics for the Economist Intelligence Unit and covered the hedge fund industry for MARHedge and Reuters News Service.

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