Top 10 states that are worse than NJ for retirement in 2025

When you think of New Jersey, what's something that typically comes to mind. If you automatically went to affordability, then you're not alone. Despite everything New Jersey has to offer, affordability is not one of them.

Which is why it might be surprising to learn that New Jersey, despite it's flaws, is not one of the worst states to retire in. In fact, we're not even in the bottom 10 when compared to the rest of the nation.

Even more shocking than that is where New Jersey falls on the affordability scale. Once again, we escaped the bottom 10. There is, however, one category where we did land toward the bottom of the pack.

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Before we get to New Jersey's numbers, what states ranked worse than New Jersey for retirement, both overall and in affordability? The results might surprise you.

States worse than NJ for retirement

We'll start of with the overall worst states in the nation or retirement. These are the places that, when all scores were combined, landed them at the bottom of the list.

The bottom 10 in order are Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nebraska, Alabama, Kansas, California, New Mexico, and Florida. Of all the states in the nation, these are the ones that ranked at the very bottom for retirement according to the latest 2025 statistics from Bankrate.

As for the best? The states that landed at the top of the list for retirement are New Hampshire, Maine, Wyoming, Vermont, Idaho, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Utah, and Virginia.

States worse than NJ for affordability

When it comes to overall affordability, New Jersey surprisingly faired decent here as well. The bottom 10 states, the ones considered least affordable for retirement, are Hawaii, Nebraska, Florida, Massachusetts, California, Oklahoma, Kansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Colorado.

As for the top 10, or the most affordable? Those titles go to West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Wyoming, Ohio, Wisconsin, Nevada, Indiana, Idaho, and Georgia.

Notice that multiple states made appearances on both bottom lists, which directly ties affordability as one of the driving factors when it comes to retirement.

How New Jersey looks

As for New Jersey? We're pretty much average among all the states coming in at #23 for our overall score. Not the best, but certainly not the worst. Just a couple of spots above the middle.

The bigger surprise comes with New Jersey's affordability score. Again, we landed middle of the pack also hitting the #23 spot when compared to all starts.

It may be surprising, but a welcomed surprise nevertheless. New Jersey is more affordable for retirement than most people realize. At least, when compared to half the country we are.

New Jersey also landed fairly close in the middle in almost every category. That is, except for two. Let's take a closer look at those.

More New Jersey rankings

Interestingly, New Jersey did grab the #1 spot in one category, while almost landing at the bottom in another. And the one toward the bottom, as you might've guessed, has to do with money.

New Jersey is the second worst state in the nation in the category for local taxes (#49), which was ranked separately from overall affordability. It also proves once again that New Jersey has a tax problem.

The only state that did worse than us in this category is New York, which is at the very bottom for local taxes.

On the flip side, New Jersey did manage to rank #1 in a different category when compared to all other states. But it's an interesting category that's kind of tough to analyze.

The "other" best

New Jersey scored the top spot in the "other" category, which, well, is still a win. Outside of our local property taxes, New Jersey really isn't such a bad place for retirement. Not the best, but certainly not the worst (check out the full 2025 rankings from Bankrate here).

The above post reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host & content contributor Mike Brant. Any opinions expressed are his own.