10 States With Highest Average Retirement Savings

How have Americans' retirement savings changed one year into the pandemic? Personal Capital earlier this year polled 1,000 people with a retirement account to find out how many were following best practices, what changes they had considered since the pandemic's onset and what they had done differently in preparing for retirement. The findings, released in February, showed that 53% were currently contributing to their 401(k) every paycheck, with people in their 30s likeliest to say they were doing so. Forty-nine percent said they were receiving the maximum match from their employer. Why not more? About one in five reported that they were currently retired. In addition, many employers needing to cut costs in order to survive had temporarily reduced 401(k) contributions. Only 33% of respondents said they were aligning their retirement accounts with their goals and risk tolerance. In a new study, Personal Capital scanned the country to find out how people's retirement savings stacked up. Researchers analyzed the retirement accounts of its 2.8 million dashboard users on an anonymized basis, ranking the 50 states and the District of Columbia by average retirement account balances as of April 3. They assumed location data based on a user's IP address. Here's a breakdown by generation of users on the Personal Capital platform:

• Gen Z: 105,452 users; average balance $35,197; median balance $10,904
• Millennials: 700,116 users; average balance $166,430; median balance $71,485
• Gen X: 357,352 users; average balance $568,750; median balance $290,807
• Baby boomers: 182,774 users; average balance $1,029,840; median balance $570,789
• No age data: 301,192 users; average balance $277,151; median balance $63,210

See the gallery for the 10 states with the highest retirement savings balances.