Florida and Virginia rank as the two least-bad entries on a list of America’s worst states to retire in. 

This is according to data from TheStreet, accessed via World Population Review.

 A fitting result for the state most associated with retirement, and a quieter surprise for the one that usually isn’t. 

The two states land in the same spot on a ranking of America’s worst states to retire in, at the very bottom of the list, meaning they’re actually the two least bad.

The ranking combines three separate scores: 

• Affordability
• Healthcare 
• Quality of life

All scores combine into a single overall number, with 1 indicating the worst state and 50 the least bad. 

TL;DR

• Florida and Virginia rank as the two least-bad states on a list of America’s worst states to retire in
• Alabama has the nation’s best affordability score for retirees and its worst healthcare score.
• New York’s poor ranking on the same list comes down almost entirely to cost, not healthcare or quality of life.

Ranked: Worst U.S. States To Retire In

Note: The healthcare component reflects 2023 data specifically.

The table above shows Florida ranks 49th worst out of 50 states, and Virginia ranks 50th, dead last on the “worst” list and effectively first on a “best” one. 

Florida and Virginia don’t stand out for excelling in any single category. They simply avoid the extreme weaknesses that drag other states toward the top of the list.

Two Different Reasons States Land Here

Looking at the states that rank poorly, a clear pattern divides them into two camps. Some states land near the top of the worst list almost entirely because of cost. 

New York holds the single worst affordability score of any state in the country, even though its healthcare rank (35th worst) and quality-of-life rank (41st worst) are both solidly good. 

Take the cost of living out of the equation, and New York wouldn’t be anywhere near this list. Other states land here for the opposite reason: they’re cheap, but healthcare or quality of life is genuinely poor.

Kentucky, the single worst-ranked state overall, isn’t driven by cost either. Its affordability rank (18th worst) is unremarkable. What pulls Kentucky to the top of the list is a poor healthcare ranking (5th-worst) and a weak quality-of-life score (10th-worst).

Alabama shows the split most dramatically of all. It holds the single best affordability score of any state in the country, yet the single worst healthcare score. 

Those two extremes very nearly cancel each other out, landing Alabama at a middling 29th overall, a result that hides one of the starkest trade-offs anywhere in the data.

ELI5

A list of America’s worst states to retire in ranks Florida and Virginia as the least bad. 

Alabama is oddly both the cheapest state and the one with the worst healthcare. New York ranks poorly mostly because it’s expensive, not because it’s a bad place to live otherwise.

Source:

World Population Review