Scottsdale rated a top-10 retirement spot in recent national study
Sep 8, 2024, 8:00 PM
Scottsdale was ranked a top-10 place to retire in a recent WalletHub study. (City of Scottsdale Facebook photo)
(City of Scottsdale Facebook photo)
PHOENIX — Scottsdale was ranked the sixth-best place to retire in the United States in a comprehensive study released Tuesday.
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WalletHub compared over 180 cities based upon 45 metrics in “Best & Worst Places to Retire (2024).”
Chandler (66th) was the only other Arizona city to crack the top 75 while Tucson (81st), Phoenix (85th) and Gilbert (86th) rounded out those in the top 100. Mesa and Glendale came in at 106th and 118th, respectively.
Cities were graded on a 100-point scale consisting of four main categories of affordability (25 possible points), activities (25 possible points), quality of life (25 possible points) and health care (25 possible points).
Subcategories included taxpayer-friendliness, annual cost of in-home services, recreation and senior centers per capita, violent-crime rate, elderly-friendly labor market and family medicine physicians per 10,000 residents.
Scottsdale scored 59.32 points to finish only 0.15 points behind Fort Lauderdale, Florida, (59.47) which occupied the final top-five spot. Orlando (61.49) was deemed the best place to retire while Miami (61.47) and Tampa (59.61) made it four Sunshine State cities in the top five. Minneapolis, Minnesota, (59.63) came in third.
San Bernardino, California, (35.71) was the last-place finisher of eligible U.S. cities. Its best categorical ranking was 126th in affordability while it earned 172nd in the remaining three areas.
How did Scottsdale fare across the board?
The city of Scottsdale was below average in the affordability subcategory (110th), but more than made up for it with top-35 finishes in the remaining metrics of interest.
It notably claimed third place for quality of life, only trailing Pearl City, Hawaii, (1st) and Honolulu, Hawaii, (2nd).
WalletHub’s study also revealed that Scottsdale shared the highest percentage of population aged 65 or older with Pearl City and had the fourth-best “mild weather” ranking.
Gilbert was among those cities featured in further analysis for activities, it being ranked 99th in recreation and senior centers per capita. Tucson was a dismal 148th for fishing facilities per capita.
Scottsdale was recently rated the sixth-best city for recreation in another WalletHub deep-dive due to its weather, entertainment and recreational facilities and quality of parks.
