Should you stay or should you go? That will be a key question in an aging America, as people try to decide if their homes and communities still work for them as they grow old.

A new online tool from AARP can help with answers. The free Livability Index grades every neighborhood and city in the United States on a zero-to-100 scale as a place to live when you are getting older.

There is no shortage of lists and rankings of places to live in retirement. Many are superficial, measuring factors such as sunshine, low tax rates or the number of golf courses. More thoughtful studies reframe the question to consider quality-of-life issues that affect everyone -- affordability, health care, public safety, public transportation, education and culture.

The new AARP tool adds value by making it possible to score any neighborhood and community in the country -- and drill down into the details. Just plug in an address to see how a location scores for seven key attributes: housing, neighborhood, transportation, environment, health, civic engagement and opportunity.

Overall, the highest-ranking large city is San Francisco with a score of 66 and rose to the top due to its availability and cost of public transportation, walkability and overall levels of health. The top medium city is Madison, Wisconsin (68) and the top small town is La Crosse, Wisconsin (70).

It is telling that even the top-ranked locations get just mediocre scores. "The numbers are telling us that no community is perfect -- and most are far from perfect,” says Rodney Harrell, director of livable communities at the AARP Public Policy Institute. "The goal here is to provide a tool that helps people make their communities better."

The timing is right for discussions to get under way about making communities better places to age. The number of households headed by someone age 70 or older will surge 42 percent by 2025, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. Most of those households will be aging in place, not downsizing or moving to retirement communities.

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