17 Worst States for Retirement: 2022

Related: 17 Best States for Retirement: 2022

More than a quarter of Americans have no retirement savings, according to a report from the personal finance website WalletHub, which cites data from the Federal Reserve. As finances influence where people retire, finding the best states in which to live is important, but can require much research. The differences between the best and worst ones are stark. Consider that Hawaii has an adjusted cost-of-living index for retirees of 182.59, compared with 85.87 for Mississippi, which has the lowest, by 2.1 times. In Washington, the median annual cost of housekeeping for older adults is 1.8 times higher than in Louisiana — $71,294 at the high end of the spectrum versus $38,896 at the low end. To help retirees find a safe, enjoyable and wallet-friendly place to call home, WalletHub researchers compared the 50 states across the key dimensions of affordability, quality of life and health care. They evaluated those dimensions using 47 relevant metrics, and graded each one 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 sample. See the gallery for the 17 least-friendly retirement states, according to WalletHub's ranking.