Washington state ranked No. 40 for retirement destinations
(The Center Square) – Washington state’s high cost of living means it’s not an attractive destination for most retirees.
That’s according to a recent study by personal finance website WalletHub, which graded all 50 states across key retirement considerations like affordability, health-related factors, and general quality of life.
The Evergreen State ranked 40th overall on WalletHub’s list, taking the top spot as the worst retirement destination in terms of cost of in-home services.
Washington also fared poorly in terms of property crime, coming it at No. 47 in that category.
“Washington is the 11th worst state to retire to mainly because of its lack of affordability. It has a high cost of living, high annual costs for in-home services and adult day healthcare,” explained WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez in an email to The Center Square about the Monday report.
“The state also has a low share of the population aged 65+, just above 15%, a low amount of expenditures captured by the Administration on Aging that funds personal care, congregate meals, transportation and nutrition education programs for seniors, and a high property crime rate,” she added.
“In terms of healthcare, Washington has a low number of family medicine physicians and nurses per capita,” Gonzalez concluded.
Across the three broad categories of affordability, health care, and quality of life, Washington state was all over the map.
On affordability, Washington ranked near the bottom at No. 46. In terms of health care, Washington was in the middle of the pack at No. 23. It wasn’t all bad news, however, as Washington ranked No. 8 in quality of life.
Oregon, Washington state’s neighbor to the south, didn’t do much better, coming in at No. 38 in WalletHub’s rankings. Washington’s eastern neighbor, Idaho, was just barely out of the top 10 best states in which to retire, with the Gem State ranked No. 11.
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