Hawaii is the best place in the United States to retire, according to a new study by MoneyRates.com.
The study examined many factors that influence a person's quality of retirement, including a state's cost of living, property taxes, violent crime rates, climate, life expectancy for seniors, recent population growth in the senior demographic and unemployment.
Hawaii was No. 1 for senior life expectancy and No. 2 for climate. It also had above-average scores in most of the other categories. Idaho and Utah came in second and third because they scored high in economic and senior-population-growth measures.
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Michigan ranked last because it ranked below-average in every measure in the survey. It was closely followed in the worst state rankings by Pennsylvania and Alaska. According to the study, weak economic and senior-population figures helped drag Pennsylvania down in the standings, while Alaska's crime, climate and economic scores, which were among the worst, hurt its ranking.
"We recognize that individual tastes vary, so the best state for one person is not going to be the best state for everybody," said Richard Barrington, MoneyRates.com senior financial analyst. "Also, I'm sure there are things to love about each one of the states in the bottom 10. The point is, though, that crunching the numbers the way we do points out some things that seniors need to know when they make a decision about where to spend their retirement years. The analysis might make you consider a state you wouldn't otherwise evaluate, or it might raise a red flag with respect to a state you were considering."
After Hawaii, Idaho and Utah, the next best states for retirement are Arizona, Virginia, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, South Dakota, California and Texas.
The 10 worst states were Michigan, Pennsylvania and Alaska, which tied for second, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio and New York, which tied for sixth place, Maine, Maryland and Rhode Island.
MoneyRates.com is a leading source of information on bank rates, personal finance, savings accounts and investing.
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