By Philip Moeller | U.S.News & World Report LP – 23 hours ago
One of the few truly fun things about contemplating retirement is dreaming about where you might want to live. Before the tough financial, family, and lifestyle decisions must be made, we can spend at least some time musing about dream homes and locales. These decisions will be made in the future, of course. So what better rose-colored guide could there be than a set of rankings geared to predict the best places to live in the United States in 20 years?
[In Pictures: The Best U.S. States to Live in 2032.]
Dan Witters, research director of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, followed this logic in rating different states and regions of the country using a series of 13 measures of personal well-being that are based on extensive national polling efforts. The measures reflect, to a large degree, how people in the area feel about themselves and their communities. They were selected because they also have value in predicting the future appeal and quality of life in an area. The Well-Being Index is a partnership between the Gallup polling organization and Healthways, a wellness services firm based in Tennessee, south of Nashville.
Gallup-Healthways found that Horace Greeley's 19th century frontier advice still holds--Go West, young man. States in the West and upper Midwest clearly lead the nation as best places to live in the year 2032.
Here is the ranking for all 50 states:
1. Utah
2. Minnesota
3. Colorado
4. Nebraska
5. North Dakota
6. Virginia
7. Iowa
8. Hawaii
9. South Dakota
10. Maryland
11. Massachusetts
12. Washington
13. Kansas
14. Alaska
15. Idaho
16. Wisconsin
17. Texas
18. California
19. Wyoming
20. Georgia
21. New Hampshire
22. Connecticut
23. Arizona
24. Montana
25. New Jersey
26. Oregon
27. North Carolina
28. Illinois
29. Vermont
30. South Carolina
31. Indiana
32. New Mexico
33. Oklahoma
34. New York
35. Michigan
36. Tennessee
37. Missouri
38. Pennsylvania
39. Rhode Island
40. Maine
41. Delaware
42. Ohio
43. Louisiana
44. Alabama
45. Arkansas
46. Florida
47. Nevada
48. Kentucky
49. Mississippi
50. West Virginia
[See The 10 Sunniest Places to Retire.]
Gallup-Healthways also divided the nation into nine regions and looked at their relative performance based on 13 measures (which received equal weights). Here are the ranking details:
1. West North Central (includes Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota)
2. Mountain (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming)
3. Pacific (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington)
4. West South Central (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas)
5. New England (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont)
6. South Atlantic (Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia)
7. East North Central (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin)
8. Middle Atlantic (New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania)
9. East South Central (Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee)
For the past several years, more than 1,000 different people have been polled nearly every day by Gallup-Healthways on a range of lifestyle and wellness topics. This large and growing set of public opinion data amounts to a solid monitor of what Americans think is really important about the ways they live, and the varying quality of life as they see it from different parts of the country.
[See 10 Places to Retire on Social Security Alone.]
The 13 measures used as the basis for the rankings:
Full-time employment
Economic confidence
Job creation
Healthy employee-supervisor relationships
Standard of living
Optimism about a place's future
Optimism about their future
Perceived learning opportunities
Clean water
Safe places to exercise
Obesity
Smoking
Dental visits
Priorities change in response to events, Witters says, so the things people think are important today may carry different weights in the future. For example, economic measures were represented heavily among the 13 measures. Fifteen or 20 years from now, they may be seen as less important, assuming the economy eventually resumes its longer-term growth pattern.
"The most critical element of any community's future livability might be a culture of successful entrepreneurship," Witters wrote in a commentary on the rankings. "Successful entrepreneurs consistently demonstrate a willingness to take risks, but they also have the resolve to start and manage a business."
"Above all, entrepreneurs create jobs," he added. "The relationships among an entrepreneurial culture, job creation, and wellbeing have never been clearer."
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/best-places-live-2032-145757620.html
