10 Best Places to Retire in West Virginia

For all of you who are looking to spend your retirement enjoying outdoor activities, we recommend taking a look at our 10 best places to retire in West Virginia. Places for fishing, hiking, hunting, skiing, you name it, West Virginia has it.

Known as “The Mountain State”, West Virginia is located entirely within the Appalachian Region that has some of the oldest mountains on Earth. It is “the 41st largest by area and the 38th most populous state in the nation”. According to the last Census from 2015, West Virginia has 1,844,128 residents, which is slightly lower compared to the data from 2010.

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You will be happy to know that you won’t have bad surprises when it comes to weather. Summers are warm to hot, and winters are not harsh. This, however, depends on the altitude you are located at. Lower parts of the state have warmer weather and vice versa. You should keep this in mind when choosing the perfect location. If you like the warm weather, but not the mountains, it wouldn’t be bad for you to look at 10 best places to retire in Virginia as well.

Although the costs of living are 14% cheaper than the U.S. average, West Virginia has some serious issues you should be aware of. The economy of West Virginia is quite bad, and it is ranked among the last in the nation according to the Economic Index. The state also has the second lowest household income among all states. One more thing West Virginia isn’t proud about its healthcare system. Last research showed that West Virginia is last or second to last in almost 20 health-related categories, senior clinical care being one of them.

If this didn’t scare you off, let’s look at how we picked 10 best places to retire in West Virginia. After we found out West Virginia’s 20 most livable places (with a population greater than 5,000) according to Area Vibes, we looked into 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 in each of these places. The data about these factors were taken from Sperling’s Best Places and U.S. Census. We calculated the average ranking for each place based on these factors and reached our goal. Let’s look at the list!