Personal Finance

Best and worst cities for retirement

Key Points
  • Where you live in retirement be a big factor when it comes to how much you can afford, your quality of life and the access you have to health care and leisure activities.
  • A new ranking from WalletHub shows which cities offer the most and which offer the least when it comes to these criteria.

If you're looking for an affordable retirement, the city in which you decide to live should be an important factor.

Personal finance website WalletHub recently ranked 182 U.S. cities based on their affordability, activities, quality of life and health care.

Each city was graded on a 100-point scale, with 100 representing the highest score.

Here are the cities that fared best.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida
SkyHighStudios | Getty Images

No. 5: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Total score: 57.83

Affordability rank: 76

Activities rank: 4

Quality of life rank: 86

Health-care rank: 48

Denver, Colorado
Bridget Calip | Getty Images

No. 4: Denver

Total score: 58.34

Affordability rank: 114

Activities rank: 16

Quality of life rank: 35

Health-care rank: 14

Lonely Planet Images/Getty Images

No. 3: Tampa, Florida

Total score: 58.48

Affordability rank: 19

Activities rank: 21

Quality of life rank: 67

Health-care rank: 79

Downtown Scottsdale and suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, with the White Tank Mountain Range in the background.
JacobH | Getty Images

No. 2: Scottsdale, Arizona

Total score: 59.36

Affordability rank: 78

Activities rank: 26

Quality of life rank: 4

Health-care rank: 37

Songquan Deng | Getty Images

No. 1: Orlando, Florida

Total score: 60.09

Affordability rank: 7

Activities rank: 7

Quality of life rank: 130

Health-care rank: 38

Here are the worst cities for retirement:

Stockton, California.
Wayne Hsieh | FlickrCC

No. 5: Stockton, California

Total score: 36.4

Affordability rank: 112

Activities rank: 179

Quality of life rank: 166

Health-care rank: 174

Baltimore, Maryland
Richard T. Nowitz | Getty Images

No. 4: Baltimore

Total score: 35.84

Affordability rank: 148

Activities rank: 66

Quality of life rank: 182

Health-care rank: 163

Boats anchored by Newport Bridge in Newport at sunset
UIG | Getty Images

No. 3: Warwick, Rhode Island

Total score: 35.71

Affordability rank: 168

Activities rank: 123

Quality of life rank: 159

Health-care rank: 152

Bridgeport, Connecticut
Jean Santopatre | America 24-7 | Getty Images

No. 2: Bridgeport, Connecticut

Total score: 34.83

Affordability rank: 181

Activities rank: 151

Quality of life rank: 133

Health-care rank: 88

Newark, New Jersey.
Sean Pavone | iStock | Getty Images

No. 1: Newark, New Jersey

Total score: 33.86

Affordability rank: 174

Activities rank: 78

Quality of life rank: 172

Health-care rank: 171

This map shows how all the cities ranked, with one being the highest and 182 the lowest.