The Safest States to Retire

As the U.S. population ages, ensuring the safety and well-being of older adults becomes increasingly important. When choosing a retirement destination, factors like crime rates, healthcare access, and infrastructure play a crucial role in determining a senior's quality of life.

With families increasingly spread across the country, choosing a retirement destination that prioritizes safety becomes even more crucial. Older adults can no longer rely solely on proximity to family for support and safety. By selecting a safe and secure community, families can have peace of mind knowing their loved ones are well-cared for, regardless of distance.

Crime against America’s seniors has skyrocketed over the past decade, with violent crime rates up by 331% and property crime rates up 79% between 2013 and 2023, according to Seniorly’s analysis of FBI data.

Though it seems unthinkable to most, the elder abuse problem has gotten so serious in America that doctors called it a “growing epidemic” in Time Magazine earlier this year.

To identify the safest states to retire, Seniorly used a holistic approach to the idea of safety, and analyzed the most recent federal data across seven categories: public safety, healthcare, falls, road safety, money lost to scams, violent crimes and property crimes.

The most recent data shows 41,400 seniors died from falls in 2023, about 8,500 were involved in deadly car crashes, and seniors lost a record $3.4 billion to scams, forcing many to sell their homes. 

We also factor in public services that keep people safe – police and hospitals. Across the U.S., there are nearly 65,000 police and sheriff’s patrol officers and an average of 15.4 hospital beds for every 1,000 seniors enrolled in Medicare, the health insurance program for older adults.

Needless to say, there’s a lot for people to consider when deciding where to retire and live out their golden years – so to make it easier, Seniorly analyzed each of these categories across the all 50 states and D.C. to determine where older adults are safest.

Here’s what we found:

• New Jersey is the Safest State: Boasting low rates of crime against older people, fewer fatalities from falls and car accidents, and a healthy police presence, the Garden State came out on top.
• Top 10 States Span East Coast: Regardless of whether they were in the North (New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut) or the South (Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama) - East Coast states dominated the top 10. Seniors there were less likely to be scammed, and most of these states also had much lower violent crime rates against older adults and fewer fatal falls.
• Worst States Concentrated Out West: Whether they were Mountain states (Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Montana) or the Pacific states (Washington and Oregon) - the western region made up most of the bottom 10 states. California was a notable exception, ranking 15th overall.
• Bigger Isn’t Always Better: The country’s five biggest states spanned the rankings, but mostly landed among the top half in the overall ranking: New York (No. 2) , Pennsylvania (No. 7),  California (No. 15), Florida (No. 20), Texas (No. 29).

Best States

Coming in first, the safest state to retire is New Jersey. It was boosted by its low rates of property and violent crimes against seniors (523.2 and 33.9 per 100k, respectively), as well as low rates of fall-related deaths among older adults (35.4 per 100k) and seniors involved in fatal traffic accidents (11.5 per 100k drivers).

Next up are neighboring New York, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Nebraska. While these states may have big differences in terms of culture and lifestyle, they all landed among the top five safest states due to their strong police presences, low levels of elder fraud, and availability of hospital beds.

For example, No. 3 Mississippi and No. 4 Louisiana had the lowest rates of elder fraud in the U.S., with a respective 60.9 and 67.2 complainants ages 60+ per 100k seniors. They also had among the highest rates of police officers per elderly population. 

Meanwhile, No. 5 Nebraska had one of the lowest rates of violent crime against seniors, with just 35.5 incidents per 100k, and No. 2 New York was more accident-proof than most states, with 49.4 fall-related deaths per 100k and just 8.1 older adults involved in fatal car crashes per 100k drivers.

Worst States

There is certainly a geographical pattern when it comes to the most dangerous states for seniors to retire. Colorado ranked as the least safe state, with high levels of elder fraud (223.1 cases per 100k) as well as rates of senior-targeted property crime (1,724.5 per 100k) and violent crime (133.8 per 100k).

Rounding out the bottom five are fellow Western states Nevada, Washington, Oregon, and New Mexico. Most of these states had very high property crime rates, with older adults more likely to be a victim in No. 49 Washington than any other state in the U.S. (1,875.6 crimes against seniors per 100k).

Meanwhile, older adults were more likely to be scammed in No. 50 Nevada than almost anywhere else (240.8 complainants per 100k adults ages 60+), and No. 48 Oregon had fewer police officers than any other state (581 per 100k older adults).

Oregon, Washington, and No. 47 New Mexico also lacked access to health care for older adults, with just 8.9, 9.4, and 11.2 hospital beds available per 1,000 Medicare patients, respectively.

Best and Worst by Category

While some states stand out as the best and worst overall, others excel in only one or two categories. Check out the best and worst states for each data point.

Conclusion

As the U.S. population ages, ensuring the safety and well-being of older adults and loved ones is a priority for millions of people across the country. The safest states for seniors to retire offer a combination of low crime rates, access to health care and law enforcement services, and good infrastructure that makes falls and traffic accidents less dangerous. While no state is perfect, understanding these dynamics can help seniors make informed decisions about where to spend their golden years.

Methodology

We used the most recent federal data for seven metrics to determine the safest states for older adults to retire. We used a Z-score distribution to scale each metric relative to the mean across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and capped outliers at +/-3. We multiplied Z-scores by -1 when a higher score was negatively associated with being above the national average, for example having more violent crime. A state’s overall ranking was calculated using its average Z-score across the seven metrics. Here’s a closer look at the metrics we used:

• Scams: Fraud complainants ages 60+ per 100k older adults, 2023 (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
• Violent crime: Violent crimes committed against adults ages 60+ per 100k older adults, 2023 (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
• Property crime: Property crimes committed against adults ages 60+ per 100k older adults, 2023 (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
• Public safety: Police and sheriff’s patrol officers per 100k adults ages 60+, 2023 (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• Falls: Fall-related deaths among adults 65+ per 100k, 2023 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Road safety: Drivers ages 65+ involved in fatal car crashes per 100k licensed drivers, 2022 (Department of Transportation)
• Health care: Number of hospital beds per 1,000 Medicare Part A enrollees, 2021 (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)