12 Best States for Retirement: 2021

Related: 12 Best States for Retirement: 2020

The when and where of retirement are perennial considerations as baby boomers leave the workforce. Many Americans are unable to retire when expected or wanted to. For one thing, a quarter of non-retired adults in 2019 had not saved any money for retirement, some through no fault of their own. In 2020, the coronavirus brought financial stress to myriad families, meaning many were unable to save last year as well. Now, 1 in 4 people expect to retire later than they anticipated because of the pandemic's effects. All this means that affordability is a major concern for people when they retire. Some states are much more inviting in this regard than others, according to a new report from WalletHub. In Hawaii, for example, the adjusted cost-of-living index for retirees is 2.3 times higher than it is in Mississippi. In Louisiana, the median annual cost of elderly housekeeping is $38,896, whereas in Washington it is $71,294. The WalletHub report noted that besides affordability, quality of life and health care are also factors in retirees' decision where to spend their twilight years. In order to identify the most retirement-friendly states, WalletHub compared the 50 states across the key dimensions of affordability, quality of life and health care, evaluating those dimensions using 45 relevant metrics. Researchers graded each metric on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for retirement. They then calculated each state's weighted average across all metrics to determine its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the states. See the gallery above for WalletHub's 12 best states to retire in 2021.

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• 15 Cheapest States for Long-Term Care: 2020