10 of the Happiest Places to Retire in the U.S.
A state of happiness cannot be pinpointed on a map. But a great deal of residents seem to have found it in these 10 places, according to the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index.
Digital health company Sharecare, working with Gallup, has conducted more than 2.6 million surveys nationwide since 2008 to gauge "Americans' perceptions of their lives and their daily experiences." The Well-Being Index is based specifically on residents' feelings about five elements of well-being: "purpose" (liking what you do and being motivated to achieve goals), "social" (having supportive relationships and love), "financial" (managing your budget to feel secure), "community" (liking where you live) and "physical" (being in good health). The higher the score, on a scale of 0 to 100, the happier residents are about where and how they are living their lives.
To come up with our original list of --one in each state--we factored in the "community" and "physical" components of the Well-Being Index, where available, as well as living costs, safety, median incomes and poverty rates for retirement-age residents and the availability of recreational and health care facilities. The following 10 retirement destinations rank the highest in terms of the overall well-being of residents. See if you agree, and consider whether any might make a happy place for your own retirement.
