Diversions August 13, 2009

The 10 Best Places to Grow Old

Where is it trendy to retire these days? The places might be different than you think.

Reported by

Forbes.com compiled a list of the 10 best places to grow old. While Florida is on the list twice, not all of the counties involve flying south. As retirees have seen some of their living expenses dwindle, we might expect to see more of them shunning sunny spots by the beach to settle down in the suburbs.

When deciding which counties in the U.S. are best places to grow old, Forbes considered how much of the population is older than 65; economic health; and health care facilities.

More specifically, Forbes looked at the percentage of those aged 65 and older in counties with a total population of 500,000, as well as median monthly housing costs and median income of the 65 and older crowd (using the U.S. Census). Forbes also considered the economic health of the county (using unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics); and the number of hospitals, clinics, and elder care facilities per 10,000 people (using data from market research firm Onboard Informatics).

By those metrics, Forbes came up with these 10 counties as the best places to grow old: