We decided to pit East against West in looking at Kiplinger's report on the best states to retire. Kiplinger evaluated all 50 states with an eye toward how suitable they'd be as a retirement home. To do so, it took into account not just taxes on retirees—based on Kiplinger's Retiree Tax Map, which categorizes states as Most Tax Friendly, Tax Friendly, Mixed, Not Tax Friendly and Least Tax Friendly—but also cost of living, with data provided by Sperling's Best Places. That information includes overall costs, across all age groups, for housing, food and groceries, transportation, utilities, health care and miscellaneous expenses. Related: 10 best suburbs for retirement Then there's the cost of health care in retirement. That's not just doctor visits, by the way, but also how much a 65-year-old couple who are both retired and are expected to live to 87 (husband) and 89 (wife) might expect to pay for such things as Medicare, supplemental insurance, dental insurance and out-of-pocket costs. To figure that out, Kiplinger turned to HealthView Services. Then there's the health of each state's population of residents 65 and over. Would you really want to move somewhere where residents aren't enjoying decent health and can't get good quality hospital and nursing home care? We didn't think so either. Stats on this came from the United Health Foundation and are based on 34 factors ranging from residents' bad habits (smoking and excessive drinking) to what you can count on with regard to hospital and nursing home care quality and availability. If you don't want to find yourself suddenly losing health care benefits—as appears to be happening to thousands of nursing home residents and Medicaid recipients in Louisiana—or having to fork over wads more cash for the property taxes on your house, you'll also be interested in learning how economically healthy each state is. After all, a bankrupt state—or one hovering on the brink—will be looking for ways to squeeze its citizens for more dough. To evaluate each state's fiscal well-being, Kiplinger turned to the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, using data for various factors including state governments' revenue sources, debts, budgets and abilities to fund pensions, health care benefits and other services. But Kiplinger didn't stop there, also examining household incomes and poverty rates courtesy of U.S. Census Bureau data. What it really comes down to is where in the country you'd most like to live, and financial aspects aside, that's something that pretty much comes down to personal taste and family ties. For the seven states Kiplinger says are the best in the West for retirees, just read on. Bear in mind that a state's ranking on this list isn't the same as its rank out of all 50 states—Texas, for example, placed seventh among Western states, but only managed to climb as high as 24th in the U.S. BenefitsPRO related reading: 7 best retirement states in the East 5 worst and 5 best states for health care