Retirees looking to steer clear of the flock who head south to Florida and Arizona might want to set their sights on a surprising alternative: Wyoming.
Orlando topped WalletHub’s ranking of the best places to retire for the third straight year, followed by some other warm weather locations that have long been popular among retirees. After lingering in the top 10 locations for the past few years, Casper, Wyoming emerged as the fifth-best place to retire, according to the Miami-based personal finance site.
The annual ranking, designed to help people find the best place to spend their golden years, compares four key factors—affordability, activities, quality of life and health care—across more than 180 cities.
“It’s important to choose wisely when picking where to retire, as many retirees are on a fixed income,” Chip Lupo, an analyst at WalletHub wrote in the report. “As a result, the best cities for retired people are those that minimize taxes and expenses, as well as have good opportunities for retirees to continue paid work for extra income, if they choose to do so.”
Orlando’s tax-friendliness largely helps to explain why this city once again topped the ranking, as Florida doesn’t have estate, inheritance or income taxes. A total of four cities in Florida made the top 10 list, the most of any state.
A city’s taxpayer-friendliness is a key determinant, though top cities for retirees also provide high-quality healthcare, along with “plenty” of enjoyable activities for retirees, according to Lupo. WalletHub considers dozens of factors like the number of bingo halls or museums per capita, a city’s walk score, weather and its number of various healthcare professionals per 1,000 residents.
Retirees in Orlando, for example, benefit from the city’s distinction on a separate ranking by WalletHub as second-best for recreation in the country.
The cities that made the top 10 list for the best places to retire this year generally ranked very highly on at least one of the four main factors considered by WalletHub. Those cities are:
- Orlando, Florida
- Miami, Florida
- Tampa, Florida
- Scottsdale, Arizona
- Casper, Wyoming
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Charleston, South Carolina
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
WHY WYOMING
While It’s a cliché that retirees retire to only sunny places, WalletHub’s annual ranking once again includes a top pick that’s not exactly known for its weather. Casper is notoriously windy.
In 2024 and 2025, for example, WalletHub ranked Minneapolis as the third-best city for retirees. It fell to No. 7 this year.
Meanwhile, Casper has been rising in the ranks thanks largely to its very high affordability score. The city, with a population of about 60,000, is the second-largest in Wyoming, which WalletHub separately ranks as the third-best state for low tax rates.
By contrast, no cities in states with the highest taxes—Illinois, New York and Connecticut—made the top 50 places for retirees.