Is California a good state to retire in? Here’s where it ranked on new national list

Is California a good state for retirees?

Personal finance website WalletHub recently released the 2025 edition of its Best and Worst States to Retire list, ranking all 50 states on key factors that impact financial health and quality of life for retirees.

“The best states for retirees are those that have low taxes and a low cost of living to help retirees’ budgets stretch as far as possible,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo wrote in a Monday article. “Having access to excellent medical care and homemaking services is also crucial, especially for people who don’t plan to retire in close proximity to their families.”

The highest-ranking states on WalletHub’s list offer relatively low costs of living while maintaining high-quality, accessible health care and fun activities for retired adults.

Here’s where California ranked:

Why is California a good place to retire?

California narrowly missed ranking among WalletHub’s top 20 states for retirees, landing at No. 21.

California was the second-best state for life expectancy, according to WalletHub.

Though the Golden State was fifth in the nation for quality health care, it ranked No. 39 for affordability and No. 24 for quality of life.

California had the second-highest cost of living in the United States, trailing only behind Hawaii, the study said.

However, California tied with New York for having the most theaters and museums per capita in the country.

What are the top 10 states for retirees?

Florida ranked No. 1 on WalletHub’s 2025 list of best states to retire, thanks in part to its low taxes, miles of shoreline and high numbers of golf courses and country clubs.

According to the study, Florida was second in the nation for affordability and quality of life. However, it ranked No. 27 in terms of health care.

Minnesota came in second place overall, and Colorado was third.

These were the top 10 states in the United States for retirees, according to WalletHub:

1. Florida
2. Minnesota
3. Colorado
   
   
4. Wyoming
5. South Dakota
6. Pennsylvania
7. New Hampshire
8. Delaware
9. North Dakota
10. Wisconsin

Which states are the worst for retirement?

According to WalletHub, Kentucky was the worst state to retire in the United States, due to its poor quality of life and health care.

Mississippi and Louisiana also ranked very low in terms of their appeal for retirees.

These 10 states were considered the worst in the United States for retirement by WalletHub:

1. Kentucky
2. Louisiana
   
   
3. Mississippi
4. Washington
5. New Mexico
6. New Jersey
7. Rhode Island
8. West Virginia
9. Arkansas
10. Hawaii

How did WalletHub come up with its ranking?

To determine the most retirement-friendly states in the United States, WalletHub used a weighted ranking system with 46 factors that impact a state’s affordability, quality of life and quality of health care.

The factors that determined affordability were:

• Adjusted cost of living
• General tax-friendliness
• Retired taxpayer-friendliness
• Tax-friendliness on estate or inheritance tax
• Annual cost of in-home services
• Annual cost of adult day health care
• Share of population 65 or older who could not afford a doctor visit

For quality of life, WalletHub looked at factors including air quality, water quality, crime rates and access to public transportation.

In the health care category, the study considered access to health care professionals, life expectancy, death rates and other factors.

Information came from sources including the FBI, U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Council for Community and Economic Research.

Camila Pedrosa

The Sacramento Bee

Camila Pedrosa is the California Diversions Reporter at The Sacramento Bee. She previously worked on The Bee’s service journalism team and was a summer reporting intern for The Bee in 2024. She graduated from Arizona State University with a master’s degree in mass communication.