12 Best States for Military Retirees: 2022

Related: 17 Best States for Retirement: 2022

Military personnel face a variety of challenges when they retire that other people leaving the workplace do not. Veterans have to relate to people who do not know or understand what they experienced in the armed services. They have to create a structure and live in an environment that lacks a clear chain of command. They have to establish medical, dental and insurance services previously provided by the military. The list goes on. Some veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, disability and, in too many instances, homelessness. Add to that the continuing fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Part of military veterans' retirement process is choosing a state in which to settle down. They must consider how state tax policies on military benefits vary, the relative friendliness of different job markets and other socioeconomic factors. As it does every year, WalletHub, a personal finance website, put out a study this week intended to ease the burden on the country's military community by identifying the places best able to provide them a comfortable retirement. Researchers compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across the dimensions of economic environment, quality of life and health care, evaluating those dimensions using 29 metrics. They graded each metric on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for military retirees. They then determined each state's and the District's weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample. See the gallery for the WalletHub's 12 best states for military retirees.