Iowa Ranks Among Best States To Retire In 2026

Is it the beach house paradise you're thinking of? No.

Whenever you do eventually retire, if you do have plenty of money saved up, where would you like to go? A condo in Florida? A cabins in the mountains out west?

It may not be likely as 65% of adults say that our retirement savings aren't on track.

WalletHub has come up with their most recent rankings of the Best and Worst States to Retire for 2026. Here's what they looked at:

• Affordability
  • Adjusted cost of living
  • General tax-friendliness
  • Retired taxpayer-friendliness
  • Tax-friendliness on estate or inheritance tax
  • Annual cost of in-home services
  • Annual cost of adult day health care
  • Share of population 65+ who could not afford a doctor
• Quality of Life
  • Share of population 65+
  • Risk of social isolation
  • Elderly-friendly labor market
  • Share of population 65+ in poverty
  • Elderly food insecurity rate
  • Expenditures captured by the Administration on Aging per population 60+
  • Access to public transportation
  • Mildness of weather
  • Access to scenic byways
  • Shoreline mileage
  • Museums per capita
  • Theaters per capita
  • Golf courses & country clubs per capita
  • Bingo halls per capita
  • Access to adult volunteer activities
  • Elderly volunteer rate
  • Share of residents who do favors for their neighbors
  • Violent crime rate
  • Property crime rate
  • Quality of elder abuse protections
  • Air quality
  • Drinking water quality
• Health Care
  • Family medicine physicians per capita
  • Dentists per capita
  • Nurses per capita
  • Home health aides per capita
  • Share of geriatricians required to meet estimated need
  • Top-rated geriatrics hospitals
  • Healthcare facilities per capita
  • Quality of public hospitals
  • Wellbeing index for populations 55+
  • Share of population 65+ with good or better health
  • Share of population 65+ with poor mental health
  • Share of population 65+ with a disability
  • Share of population 65+ who are physically active
  • Share of population 65+ who are obese
  • Share of population 65+ with inadequate sleep
  • Life expectancy
  • Death rate for population 65+

The highest score was 61.56 (Wyoming) and Iowa came in 10th in the best states to retire, with a total of 56.26.

Iowa's highest-scoring category was the Health Care one.

States near Iowa, like Minnesota and Wisconsin, also ranked very high on the list of states to retire to.