- New Hampshire was ranked number one on Bankrate’s list for the best retirement destinations in 2025. Granite State received excellent ratings in categories such as taxes, health care and safety.
- Florida and Arizona, which are traditionally retirement hotspots, scored poorly in the overall rankings. The Sunshine State ranked 41st and the Grand Canyon State ranked 31st.
Last year over 4.1 million Americans The retirement age has been reached. While that doesn’t necessarily mean they all stopped working, a record number are considering where and how to spend their golden years. Bankrate suggests that retirees seriously consider New England.
The website released its list of best places to retire by 2025 in late July. New Hampshire was ranked first. The company studied data on each state. This included affordability, weather conditions, safety, healthcare, taxes and entertainment.
New Hampshire came out on top in the overall rankings, scoring highly across multiple categories. These included neighborhood safety (first), taxation (sixth), health care (fifth), and people with similar ages (seventh). The report stated that New Hampshire offers a quality of life in terms health care and safety while maintaining an affordable price. New Hampshire taxes individual income, but it only charges three percent for interest and dividends. This means that Social Security dollars for retirees could go further in New Hampshire than they would in other states with high taxes.
The Granite State is not the only state in the northeast to be ranked. Bankrate reported that the top 10 list of the study is dominated more by atypical members, four New England States, including New Hampshire Maine Rhode Island and Vermont.
Maine was ranked second overall. It scored first in the number of seniors, second in neighborhood safety and third in health care. New Hampshire, as well as Maine, ranked at the bottom of the list for weather conditions due to low levels or sunlight.
Maine ranks third in the overall ranking, followed by Wyoming, Vermont, and Idaho.
Stephen Kates is a Bankrate financial analyst. He shared that the results of their survey may shock retirees who have only considered warm climate and income tax when planning to relocate.
Florida is ranked at the bottom of the list for retirement destinations. 41. Sunshine State scores low on affordability, weather, health care and other categories. Arizona Did a little bit better, taking No. 31. West Virginia was the most affordable state, and Hawaii was the last.
Results are available at bankrate.com.
