These are the Cities You’ll Want to Live in When You’re Old

 

Raise your hand if you’re tired of seeing the following headline, “Top [insert number here] Cities for Seniors.” Assuming that most people reading this put their arm in the air, let’s get one thing straight: this is not another post on why soaking up the sun on a Florida beach is the best option for today’s retirees.

“As a growing population of older adults emerges, timeworn notions of aging no longer fit,” write the authors of the 2014 “Best Cities for Successful Aging” report released by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Milken Institute. “Millions of aging adults are upending convention, seeking to remain active and contributing members of their communities. A revolution in the ‘culture of aging’ is underway.”

Eighty million Americans will be 65 or older by 2040, becoming de-facto members of this revolution. To facilitate the dialogue surrounding ways that communities can help these men and women remain healthy, contributing members of society, Milken analysts evaluated 352 metropolitan areas (100 large and 252 small) across America on their ability to provide opportunities for aging adults to flourish.

Each city was graded based on 84 different quality indicators–employment opportunities for people 65 and older, the number of accessible grocery stores, the quality of nursing home care, the average amount of money allotted to reverse mortgages in the area, etc. Since the needs of older adults can vary dramatically, depending on their age, cities were given three separate rankings: an overall score for people 65 and older, a score for those aged 65-79 and a score for people 80 and above.

In the end, the top 20 major metros didn’t include any Florida beaches and only one California locale:

Madison, WI
Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA
Provo-Orem, UT
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
Salt Lake City, UT
Jackson, MS
Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA
Toldeo, OH
Austin-Round Rock, TX
Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO
Urban Honolulu, HI
Syracuse, NY
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA
Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA
Springfield, MA
Cleveland-Elyria, OH
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

Sun-soaked states were also, for the most part, conspicuously absent from the top 20 smaller metros:

Iowa City, IA
Sioux Falls, SD
Bismarck, ND
Rapid City, SD
Ames, IA
Rochester, MN
Ann Arbor, MI
Cheyenne, WY
Fargo, ND-MN
Midland, TX
Gainesville, FL
Lincoln, NE
Lubbock, TX
Morgantown, WV
Missoula, MT
Ithaca, NY
Billings, MT
Abilene, TX
Casper, WY

“With the demographic shift proceeding across America, enabling successful aging could not be more important for our future,” says Milken Institute president, Paul Irving in a press release. “We hope our findings spark national discussion and, at the local level, generate virtuous competition among cities to galvanize improvement in the social structures that serve and empower older adults.”

For more information on each city’s ranking, see: Best Cities for Older Adults in 2014

Image credit: jennicatpink via Flickr 

AgingCare.com