Atlanta named one of the top places to retire

Atlanta is one of the best places to retire, a new report by personal finance website WalletHub shows.

The report, which was released Tuesday, ranked Atlanta the 10th-best retirement city among 180 U.S. cities across the country.

Seven in 10 U.S. workers reported feeling at least somewhat confident they will have enough money to retire comfortably, but only 3 in 10 said they were “very confident, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2021 Retirement Confidence Survey.

“The largest shares of retirees’ expenditures are on housing, transportation, health care, food, entertainment, and taxes,” William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business Professor Deborah Allen Hewitt said.

WalletHub compared the retiree friendliness of cities based on 48 metrics.

WalletHub experts examined the cities’ affordability by evaluating the cost of living, taxpayer friendliness and the annual cost of in-home and adult day care health care, among other things. They also looked at the cities’ activities, such as the number of museums, music venues and other recreational and entertainment venues per capita. WalletHub ranked cities’ quality of life by looking at the share of older adults, strength of elder abuse protections, weather and air and water quality. It also ranked cities based on the qualify of health care.

“Retirement isn’t all about the money, though. Retirees want to live in a place where they enjoy safety and access to good health care, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic,” WalletHub said. “The ideal city will also have lots of ways to spend leisure time, along with good weather.”

According to the WalletHub report, Atlanta offers good quality of life for retirees. It was ranked No. 7 for its recreational friendliness and No. 1 for its age-friendly community. It has the most golf courses and art galleries per capita compared with the other cities. It also ranked first for its availability of adult volunteer activities.

Atlanta was ranked 90th among the 180 cities for its overall taxpayer friendliness and 32nd for its retiree tax friendliness. It earned the top position for estate tax friendliness because it has no inheritance tax.

Orlando, Florida, ranked as the best U.S. city to retire, and Charleston, South Carolina, was ranked second in the WalletHub report. Scottsdale, Arizona, was selected as the third-best city to retire. Scottsdale has the highest share of the population age 65 and older and the best mild weather ranking, the report said.

The worst cities to retire, according to WalletHub, are San Bernardino, California, Newark, New Jersey, and Bridgeport, Connecticut.