Walnut Creek Makes Top 5 List CA Retiree Destination Rankings

Bea Karnes
Updated ·2 min read

WALNUT CREEK, CA — Walnut Creek grabbed a top 5 spot in a ranking of California's best retirement destinations.

A financial services website factored quality of life, health care and available activities as the three criteria used to evaluate 260 cities and towns. Wallethub.com published the rankings Wednesday.

With two hospitals here, Walnut Creek scored high in the health care category. Here's what is taken into consideration for health care:

  • COVID-19 Cases in the Last Seven Days per 100,000 Residents

  • Health-Care Facilities per Capita

  • Family Medicine Physicians per 10,000 Residents

  • Dentists per 10,000 Residents

  • Nurses per 1,000 Residents

  • Life Expectancy

  • Death Rate for Population Aged 65 & Older

Retirees seem to have already gotten the message — Walnut Creek is number three in the state for percentage of the population age 65 or older, behind Palm Desert and Palm Springs which tied for the top spot.

All of the top nine cities listed are in the Bay Area. No. 10 Yorba Linda is the only Southern California city to crack the top 10. Here is the top 10 —

  1. Los Gatos

  2. Los Altos

  3. San Ramon

  4. Walnut Creek

  5. Saratoga

  6. Novato

  7. Danville

  8. Palo Alto

  9. Oakley

  10. Yorba Linda

Other East Bay cities to make the list include Pleasanton at number 12, Martinez at number 22, Livermore right behind at 23, followed by Union City at 24, Castro Valley is 27, and Dublin squeezed in at 29.

The rankings were not kind to the Central Valley. Modesto was ranked the state's worst retirement destination. It was among eight Central Valley cities that made the state's top 10 cities retirees should avoid.

See the full methodology for the rankings at Wallet Hub

— Patch editors Gideon Rubin and Bea Karnes contributed to this story


This article originally appeared on the Walnut Creek Patch