Study Ranks Best States For Retirement In 2025: See How PA Fared

PENNSYLVANIA — When it comes to enjoying retirement, a new study has concluded that there are few better states to do it in than Pennsylvania.

After evaluating all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the senior living technology company Seniorly has ranked Pennsylvania as the nation's fifth-best place to retire. Only the District of Columbia, Montana, Wyoming and Alaska were rated better.

The study was released during the infancy of a year that will see a record 4.2 million people reach the retirement age of 65, according to The Wall Street Journal. Many of them may have difficulty navigating their later years;a recent AARP study found that 20 percent of adults over the age of 50 have no retirement savings and 61 percent are concerned that they will not have sufficient funds to support themselves in retirement.

To help older adults evaluate a location's impact on the aging experience, Seniorly ranked states based on nine metrics spread across three categories: affordability, quality of life and health care. The metrics included cost of living, income taxes, Supplemental Security payments, weather, entertainment options, availability of doctors, long-term care spending, the community of older adults, and overall health status.

Pennsylvania ranked first in affordability, a category that considered a state's cost of living as well as personal income taxes and federal and state payments through Supplemental Security Income. Pennsylvania, Iowa and Tennessee ranked best for affordability, while Massachusetts, California and New York were rated the worst.

Pennsylvania's next-door neighbor, New Jersey, was rated the worst state for retirement. Seniorly found it to be one of the country's least affordable states, with mediocre access to arts and recreation opportunities and a senior population in which 65 percent of people have three or more chronic conditions.

See the entire study here.