Two Florida metros featured in the top 10 with Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla. and Fort Myers-Cape Coral, Fla. representing the Sunshine State with roughly 3.5% of retirees moving to these metropolitan areas.
Worth noting that two of the most popular metropolitan areas to relocate for retirement were around Los Angeles and San Francisco in California.
Departing Delaware, Moving Out Of Maryland: The States Retirees Were Most Likely To Leave
On the flip side, states which saw the highest percentage of retirees choosing to move out for retirement were Delaware and Maryland, where 22% of people moving to retire decided to leave. In Utah, which was top of our ranking last year had a share of 19% defectors.
Following them, a number of states, including Virginia and New Jersey, had 15% of their retirement moves headed outside the state.
Who Is Moving For Retirement In America: Retirement Moves By Demographic
In a year immediately following the pandemic, which cohorts of senior citizens were most and least likely to relocate for retirement?
Men (53%) are the majority among senior citizens relocating for retirement (47% are listed as women). Married couples accounted for 77% of retirement moves, while only 23% were single (which includes those divorced, widowed and those never married).
An overwhelming majority of Americans moving for retirement in 2021 were white (88%); only 12% of those retiring and relocating were people of color.
Volodymyr Kupriyanov is a data journalist based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Sources and Methodology: Unless otherwise stated, all the data behind the charts in this study was taken from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey and its Annual Social and Economic Supplements for 2021.
To calculate the most moved-in and most moved-out states and cities, we took the percentage of all retirees in 2021 who moved or left a state or city. “Early retirees” was operationalized as any retiree younger than 65.