by J.D. Davidson
One Ohio city ranks in the top five of best places to retire in the nation, and four others rank among the best of the nation’s largest cities, according to a new report from WalletHub, a personal finance website.
Cincinnati ranked third – behind only Charleston, South Carolina and Orlando – in the report that compared the retiree-friendliness of more than 180 cities using 46 metrics, such as cost of living to retired taxpayers to the state’s health infrastructure.
Cincinnati ranked 98th in affordability, third in activities, 66th in quality of life and 49th in health care.
“Cincinnati is the third-best retirement city. It ranks particularly high in terms of activities, as it has a lot of music venues and bingo halls per capita,” WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez said. “Cincinnati is also a great city for recreation and has a strong age-friendly community. In terms of health care, the city has plenty of home-care facilities for the elderly.”
Akron, Columbus, Cleveland and Toledo all made the list of top retirement cities.
Akron ranked 44th with its highest numbers for activities and health care, while Columbus ranked 71st, ranking in the top 50 for quality of life. Cleveland came in at 78th on the list, and Toledo was 140th.
“This is mostly because of the state’s lack of an estate or inheritance tax. The cities also have many bingo halls, strong age-friendly communities, plenty of family medicine physicians, and top-rated geriatrics hospitals,” Gonzalez said.
In a different report, WalletHub ranked Ohio as the 23rd best state to retire. Florida held the top spot, followed by Virginia, Colorado, Delaware and Minnesota. The worst states to retire were New Jersey, Mississippi, New York, Kentucky and Oklahoma.
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J.D. Davidson is a regular contributor to The Center Square. An Ohio native, Davidson is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years of experience in newspapers in Ohio, Georgia, Alabama and Texas. He has served as a reporter, editor, managing editor and publisher.
Photo “Cincinnati” by Ynsalh. CC BY-SA 4.0.
