Personal Finance

This state is home to the healthiest seniors

Key Points
  • More than 8 in 10 older people residing in New Hampshire describe themselves as being in “good, very good or excellent health”, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • In comparison, Mississippi had the fewest seniors — 64 percent — who reported themselves as being in “good, very good or excellent health.”
  • When searching for a place to retire, health care quality matters, too.
Nashua is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire and is the second largest city in the state.
Denis Tangney Jr. | Getty Images

If you want to retire among the healthiest individuals, consider heading to New Hampshire.

That's because the Granite State is home to the healthiest residents in the 65-and-over cohort, according to SeniorLiving.org's analysis of Healthy Aging data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The federal agency's most recent round of data is from 2016.

About 83 percent of New Hampshire seniors reported to the CDC that their health was either "good," "very good" or excellent.

The government collected this data as part of its Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, an annual round of phone interviews with more than 400,000 adults across the country.

See below for more information on the states with the healthiest residents over 65.

Beyond health, New Hampshire clocked in at number 4 among the best places to retire, according to data from personal finance site Bankrate.com.

The state had a low crime rate, high marks for cultural vitality — including fun things to do — and top ratings for health care quality, according to Bankrate.com's analysis.

Other states that are home to healthy older Americans include Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota and Utah, according to SeniorLiving's analysis of the CDC data.

On the opposite end, Mississippi had the fewest number of older residents reporting they were healthy.

Approximately 64 percent of those 65 and over in the Magnolia State said their health was either "good," "very good" or excellent.


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