I don't agree with the ranking criteria. Why would I care about the financial health of other retirees? Why would I care about the physical health of other retirees? I live in California, the next to last rated state. Sure there are lots of things wrong with CA, but most of them can be mitigated. The sales tax is stupid high, but I don't spend much on useless crap. The state income tax is high, but as an early retiree, I can control my taxable income. Property taxes are high if you are just getting into the game but for those of us who have owned our homes for over 20 years, the taxes are very low. The climate is mild, I pay almost nothing for electricity (yay solar!) and very little for heating. I have access to a great climate and year around outdoor activities to keep me healthy. Sure, I could move to Nebraska and get a cheap house, but then I would spend a fortune heating and cooling it. Even though the Nebraska climate sucks, I could still get year round exercise shoveling snow and swatting mosquitoes. I guess the point is that there is so much individual variance and opportunities for optimization within each state that these "average" rating are not very helpful.