Top 10 US States by Retirement Score
PlainRelocate retirement score ranks US states across cost, safety, healthcare, climate, housing, and tax dimensions for retirement-age relocation.
Research period:
Research question
Across US states, which carry the highest composite retirement scores combining cost healthcare safety climate and tax dimensions, and how do tax-favorable states compare to states leading on healthcare or climate?
Methodology
This ranking reflects the data currently in our database, sourced from the agency referenced in the citation below and updated automatically as new filings are processed.
Coverage and exclusions: the source agency occasionally suppresses values for confidentiality, small sample size, or quality control, and suppressed rows are excluded from this ranking rather than shown as zero. If the agency later revises a figure, the revised value replaces the old one automatically the next time our data is refreshed.
Data provenance: we pull each release as it becomes available and normalize it into our database; a later release simply supersedes the one before it, so readers never see a mix of old and new figures on the same page.
Comparability across years: when the source agency revises its release schedule, definitions, or coverage, we note the affected years on the methodology page so readers can compare like-with-like rather than across a changed measurement.
Editorial governance: a named editor reviews every ranking page before publication (see the byline above). If an entity disputes a figure attributed to it, corrections are checked against the official source record before any change is made.
Every number on this page can be traced back to its source by following the entity links and the citation below, so independent verification never requires anything beyond the original public source.
See the methodology page for the complete ETL pipeline, source vintage, and column lineage.
Top 10 US States by Retirement Score
Live data: reflects the current dataset
The ranked top 10
Every row below reflects the current 10-record dataset. Reload the page after new data is processed to see the latest values.
| # | State | Retirement score | Grade | Cost | Healthcare | Income tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | 89 | A | 98 | 76 | 92 |
| 2 | West Virginia | 82 | A | 84 | 64 | 80 |
| 3 | South Carolina | 80 | A | 64 | 56 | 85 |
| 4 | Wyoming | 77 | B | 70 | 92 | 100 |
| 5 | Alabama | 75 | B | 88 | 20 | 90 |
| 6 | Arkansas | 74 | B | 100 | 68 | 75 |
| 7 | South Dakota | 73 | B | 90 | 70 | 100 |
| 8 | Iowa | 70 | B | 96 | 42 | 85 |
| 9 | North Dakota | 69 | C | 86 | 94 | 75 |
| 10 | Georgia | 68 | C | 52 | 48 | 88 |
Source: U.S. Federal Statistical System, CMS HRSA Tax Foundation NOAA combined state retirement composite. Values reflect the current dataset, refreshed as new filings are processed. U.S. Federal Statistical System, CMS HRSA Tax Foundation NOAA combined state retirement composite. Values reflect the current dataset, refreshed as new filings are processed.
Findings
Top entity in the ranking
The top-ranked record in this dataset is Mississippi, with a value of 89 on the Retirement score column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. Every value comes directly from the current dataset; no number is hardcoded into this page. When the source agency publishes a revision, the ranking and the prose around it update automatically.
Distribution shape
The gap between the top-ranked record (89) and the 10th-ranked record (68) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.
Aggregate context
Across the full population behind this ranking, here are the summary statistics: how many records exist in total, the sum of the ranking metric across all qualifying records, and the mean per-record value. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied (records with null or zero values on the ranking metric are excluded). This aggregate row is computed from the same dataset that powers the ranking above.
Source provenance
The records in this ranking originate from U.S. Federal Statistical System, specifically the CMS HRSA Tax Foundation NOAA combined state retirement composite. PlainRelocate ingests the source vintage published by the agency and keeps this page current, there is no static export carrying stale numbers, and a newly published dataset is reflected here within hours. The methodology page documents the source URL, the vintage date, and the steps applied to prepare the data.
Why this ranking matters
Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.
What this analysis cannot tell us
Retirement scores weight cost healthcare safety climate and tax dimensions per a documented methodology in /methodology/. Retirement-age priorities vary widely by household, a household optimizing for low state income tax weights the income_tax_score column differently than one prioritizing low-cost healthcare or proximity to family. State-level scoring aggregates intra-state variation; a state with strong healthcare in urban centers and weak healthcare in rural counties may show a flat statewide healthcare score that misleads readers about specific destinations. Property tax scoring uses statewide median effective rates and does not capture exemptions (homestead, senior, veteran) that materially shift effective rates for retirees in specific situations. Estate-tax scoring distinguishes states with active estate or inheritance tax regimes from those without; states sometimes change estate-tax thresholds and exemptions through legislation between scoring vintages. Healthcare scoring draws on CMS quality reporting and HRSA shortage-area designations and does not capture Medicare Advantage market depth or out-of-pocket cost differentials by state, which are material to retiree budgeting. Climate scoring uses long-run NOAA climate normals and does not capture short-term variability or projected climate-change shifts.
Secondary cut from the same source
Top 10 states by healthcare sub-score (CMS and HRSA indicators)
Sources
- U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Provider Quality Reporting - https://www.cms.gov/
- U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, Shortage Designations - https://data.hrsa.gov/topics/health-workforce/shortage-areas
- Tax Foundation, State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets - https://taxfoundation.org/
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Climate Normals - https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/land-based-station/us-climate-normals