Florida and North Carolina metropolitan areas account for six of the top 10 places on U.S. News & World Report’s new “2020 Best Places to Retire” list, released today.
Four Florida metro areas and two North Carolina metro areas rank in the top 10, with Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Michigan and Texas locations also taking top spots on the list of 125 total places.
Measures factoring into the rankings included happiness (how content residents are with important aspects of their daily lives), housing affordability, healthcare, retiree taxes, desirability of location and the job market of an area. They were weighted in that order based on a survey of 2,541 adults aged 45 or more years meant to find out what matters most when people think about retiring. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. News hospital rankings and other sources also factored into the rankings.
Most major metro areas didn’t make the top 10 because they scored low in housing affordability, U.S. News said.
The top 10 Best Places to Retire, according to U.S. News:
- Fort Myers, FL
- Sarasota, FL
- Lancaster, PA
- Asheville, NC
- Port St. Lucie, FL
- Jacksonville, FL
- Winston-Salem, NC
- Nashville
- Grand Rapids, MI
- Dallas-Fort Worth
The full list of 125 locations is posted on the U.S. News website.
