It's no secret that Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland are all great places to retire, and now there's data showing that retirees are enamored with all of Washington.
More than 338,000 older Americans retired across state borders in 2023. (That's according to US Census Bureau data analyzed by the moving service Hire-a-Helper.) And our home state of Washington made the top five most popular destinations for cross-state retirements.
Washington ranked #5 with 5.3% of all such moves. No surprise that Florida was #1 at 11.1%, but I definitely wasn't aware that South Carolina was such a popular retirement destination. It was second at 10%. Here's the full top 10:
Personal biases aside, I often see the Tri-Cities make various lists of the best places to retire. Wenatchee and Gig Harbor also show up on those lists pretty often.
It may come as no surprise that California ranked #1 as the state retirees most often leave. 😬 New York state was second on that list.
- Cari