Methodology: Investopedia and Travel + Leisure’s Best Places To Retire In The U.S.

Places identified in Destination: Retirement 2025 articles were selected from a list of U.S. counties that were ranked according to factors which are most important to retirees: cost of living, as well as access to travel, entertainment, and health care based on publicly available data sources including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). More details about each data set, below. 

To create the final list of 50 U.S. cities, staff editors from Investopedia and Travel + Leisure identified the best places within the aforementioned counties across the United States, with a special look at each of five regions: Northeast, Southeast, West, Southwest, and Midwest. The goal was to identify locations in each region that balance financial affordability with lifestyle qualities often desired by people in retirement.

How We Collected & Analyzed The Data

The data research team collected all statistics, and Investopedia staff editors narrowed the list to select locations across states and population densities. Final selections were based on Investopedia’s scoring against the criteria below.  

Once Investopedia staff editors narrowed down the list, we passed the data to staff editors on Travel+Leisure to add a layer of expert travel and lifestyle judgement to determine our final list of 50 U.S. cities across five regions. 

Important

There are numerous factors to consider when choosing where to live, let alone spend, during retirement, and our list of considerations may not reflect everyone’s preferences. 

Below is a description of the data we collected and evaluated to determine affordability and interest to retirees:

Cost of Living

• Average monthly living costs weighed heavily on our rankings. To find affordable places to retire we considered average monthly costs on the county-level for each of the following categories:
• Median monthly housing costs (regardless of ownership status) from the U.S. Census (ACS). To be able to cover the broadest possible range of counties, we used 5-year estimates from 2023 which were the latest available at the time of analysis.
• Average monthly food, taxes, and transportation costs from the Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI) Family Budget Calculator. Data used for households with two adults and 0 children. Budget component data are in 2024 dollars.
• All data last accessed February, 2025.

Access to Travel

For our rankings, access to travel is determined by the distance between each county center and the nearest major airport. Major airports include hubs defined by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as large or medium hubs based on commercial year 2023 data.

Access to Health Care

Our rankings considered both access to hospitals and ambulatory health establishments (doctor’s offices, dentists, outpatient centers, etc.) per capita. Data was gathered by our research staff on the county-level from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and divided by the number of residents in each county. Data are from Q1, 2024 which were the latest available at the time of analysis.

Access to Entertainment

For our rankings we also considered the availability of places to experience entertainment, art, and culture. Data was gathered by our research team on arts, entertainment and recreation establishments (including sports venues, museums, etc) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and divided by the number of residents in each county.