More than 1 million senior citizens typically move every year to a new locale to spend their golden years. So what are the most popular retirement destinations? The , which publishes Business Journal newspapers in many major metros, recently used a six-part formula to rank the most popular places for retirees. The formula included the number of residents aged 65 or older, seniors as a percentage of the population and percentage of seniors who moved to that metro.
Not surprisingly, the top of the rankings is dominated by warm-weather cities, particularly in Florida and Arizona. Number 1 overall is Florida’s Bradenton-Sarasota metropolitan area, where more than 25 percent of the population are seniors and the median age is 48, about 12 years higher than the nation as a whole. Most of the highest-ranked places are smaller metropolitan areas, where large concentrations of seniors account for a higher proportion of the total population.
Among larger metropolitan areas, Tampa-St. Petersburg led the group, followed by Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Phoenix and Riverside-San Bernardino, California. In the formula, final scores ranged from +20 down to -10.
Here are the top 10 destinations for seniors:
Rank | Metro area | Closest major metro | Total population | Senior population | Retirement area score |
1 | Bradenton-Sarasota, Florida | Tampa | 688,126 | 184,455 | 19.119 |
2 | Prescott, Arizona | Phoenix | 215,686 | 50,899 | 16.488 |
3 | Lake Havasu City, Arizona | Las Vegas | 194,825 | 43,633 | 16.458 |
4 | Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida | Tampa | 586,908 | 133,367 | 15.906 |
5 | Naples, Florida | Tampa | 318,537 | 85,608 | 15.820 |
6 | Palm Bay-Melbourne, Florida | Orlando | 536,357 | 111,653 | 14.976 |
7 | Homosassa Springs, Florida | Tampa | 140,357 | 42,966 | 14.735 |
8 | Ocala, Florida | Orlando | 328,547 | 80,964 | 13.360 |
9 | Punta Gorda, Florida | Tampa | 156,952 | 54,299 | 12.394 |
10 | Port St. Lucie, Florida | Miami | 406,296 | 91,683 | 12.386 |
(Source: American City Business Journals.)
