First Published: March 8, 2023 via MarketWatch
One question that’s top of mind for many people entering, or in, retirement: Where should I live?
Often, the answer is another state — for better weather, lower living costs, proximity to adult children or some other reason. In fact, roughly 234,000 retirees moved to a new state last year, according to a survey from Hire a Helper, an online moving marketplace service.
But when you’re researching a relocation for retirement, it also pays to explore how age-friendly the area is, so you’ll have an idea whether it will be hospitable.
Ranking states for age-friendliness
Now, there’s a first-of-its-kind ranking of the age-friendliness of all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. from the AgeFriendly.com site.
What makes this ranking different from so many other state lists is that this one is wholly based on what older residents say about where they live.
“The whole premise was that there is a ‘top-down’ rubric for determining what makes an age-friendly city or state. This is meant to be ‘bottom-up,’ where the older adults themselves can weigh in,” said Tim Driver, president of AgeFriendly.com and its umbrella group, The Age Friendly Institute.
To create his ranking, Driver worked with Dr. Alexandre Kalache — who conceived the age-friendly communities program for the World Health Organization (WHO) — to survey people about how age-friendly they thought their communities were.
They used WHO’s eight criteria: community and healthcare; transportation; housing; social participation; outdoor spaces and buildings; respect and social inclusion; civic participation and employment and communication and information…