No Florida cities made this list of best places to retire, but retirees still love Florida
No Florida cities ranked on a list of the top 10 cities to retire to in the country compiled by the reviews website Consumer Affairs. In fact, no Florida cities made it into the top 20 or top 30 either.
The top 20 rankings are primarily taken by cities in Texas, Iowa and Illinois. And the overall top city for retirees in 2023 is in — Nebraska.
But the list doesn’t reflect real trends of retiree moving patterns. It’s based on which cities make the most sense for retirees to live, according to financial and quality of life data.
According to a January report from AARP, Florida’s high inflation rates and insurance crisis aren’t scaring away flocks of snowbirds who hope to spend their sunset years in the Sunshine State.
Florida isn't the best place to retire? This study says it's Iowa. Why Iowa?
What percentage of retirees move to Florida?
According to AARP, U.S. Census Bureau data and relocation trends from moving-services marketplace Hire A Helper, more retirees chose to relocate to Florida in 2022 than any other state.
Almost 12% of the 234,000 retirees who moved to another state in 2022 chose Florida.
What city in Florida has the most retirees?
According to AARP, the most attractive region of Florida for retirees in 2022 was central Florida’s Atlantic Coast.
Palm Bay, Melbourne and Titusville, on Florida's Space Coast, attracted 9.2% of retirees moving to metropolitan regions in 2022 and is particularly popular for early retirees. Residents ages 55 through 64 made up almost 40% of the older residents who moved to the area last year, which is 11% higher than the national share of that age group.
What city has the most benefits for retirees?
The top-ranking city on Consumer Affairs’ list of the best places to retire in the country is Lincoln, Nebraska. The retiree population is low. Only 14.6% of Lincoln’s population is 65 years or older, which could be due to its climate.
Lincoln's 52-degree average year-round temperature and winter freezes that last through April are a far cry from the retiree-loved sunny beaches and Florida's 72-degree average year-round temperature. But the Nebraska capital has a high walkability score, low rent costs and low crime rate, which keep it at the top of this list.
Consumer Affairs’ recent rankings for top cities in the country for retirees is based on these categories:
Cost of living index
Percentage of people 65 and over
Total crime (violent and property crimes) per 100,000 people
Rent burden (percentage of households spending 30% or more of household income on rent)
Preventive services (percentage of people 65 and older up to date on core set of clinical preventive services)
Access to healthy foods (percentage of people living more than half a mile from the nearest grocery store
Access to parks (percentage of population living within a 10-minute walk of a green space)
Physical inactivity score (percentage of population with no leisure-time physical activity in the past month)
Walkability (Walk Score)
Community well-being score (Sharecare index)
Temperature (Whether average temperature from February 2022 to January 2023 was between 65 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit)
Consumer Affairs’ list of the top 10 best cities for retirees in 2023:
Lincoln, Nebraska
St. Louis, Missouri
Champaign, Illinois
Des Moines, Iowa
El Paso, Texas
McAllen, Texas
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Jackson, Mississippi
Akron, Ohio
Great Falls, Montana
No Florida cities made the top 20 or 30 on this list, but three did make it into the top 50. Pensacola ranked in the 36th spot, Tampa took 42nd and Miami took 49th.
What is the cheapest city for seniors to live in?
Of the top five cities on Consumer Affairs’ list of best cities to retire to, Des Moines, Iowa has the lowest cost of living.
Iowa’s capital city, which is also its biggest city by population, is around 4% more expensive than Lincoln, Nebraska when it comes to rent costs but scores higher in overall affordability for retirees. Residents age 65 and older only make up around 13% of Des Moines’ population.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Best Florida places to retire were ranked low on this list. Here's why
