10 Best Places to Retire in North Dakota

The time has come for us to present you with the 10 best places to retire in North Dakota. Although this is one of the least populous states in the country, having only 13 cities with a population over 5,000, things could soon change thanks to the recently discovered natural resources.

North Dakota is situated on the border with Canada in the region known as Great Plains. This, of course, means that if you like mountains, you won’t see them that much in North Dakota. The geographic position of North Dakota affects the states’ climate in a great manner. Being almost equally distanced from the North Pole and the Equator, North Dakota has a continental climate characterized by hot summers and cold winters. The warmest month is July with temperature averaging 82F (28C), while January is the coldest month with average temperatures of 22 F (–5C). This, however, doesn’t have to be definitive since the state is extensive and lots of temperature variations can be found.

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This state has relied on agriculture for the most of its time, with agriculture being the biggest industry in North Dakota in the present time as well. Because of this fact, the state started losing its population from the 1930’s to the end of the 20th century. The young, college-educated part of the population couldn’t find the job in their field, so they started going elsewhere. The trend of population decline changed during the 21st century, due to discovered oil reserves that caused the oil industry to bloom and more jobs to be available. One thing that North Dakota can be proud of is the fact that it has an unemployment rate of 2.6%, one of the lowest in the nation.

To begin our search for the best places to retire in North Dakota we used all of the state’s places with a population greater than 5,000. We checked how each of those places stands when it comes to these 4 factors – the number of physicians per capita (100,000), the crime rates, the number of residents aged 65 years and over, and the cost of living. The data were taken from Sperling’s Best Places and U.S. Census, and we calculated the average ranking for each place, thus making our unique list of the best places for retirees in North Dakota. Before you begin with this list, you may want to check out the best retiring places in Nebraska as well.