--- title: Where to Retire: The Most Popular Locations description: The most popular destinations for retirement are overwhelmingly in Florida, Arizona and the coast of South Carolina. canonical: https://time.com/4734442/retirement-popular-place-map/ author: Chris Wilson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-11T17:36:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:57:51.285Z og:title: The 25 Most Popular Places to Retire og:description: The places where Americans move after quitting work og:url: https://time.com/4734442/retirement-popular-place-map/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt631b114f8cf0b521/6988c255a988ca0a896bbae1/retirement-fb.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1824 og:image:height: 1026 og:image:alt: Scenic View Of Harbor And Sea Against Sky During Sunset og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The 25 Most Popular Places to Retire twitter:description: The places where Americans move after quitting work twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt631b114f8cf0b521/6988c255a988ca0a896bbae1/retirement-fb.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The 25 Most Popular Places to Retire in America > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Chris Wilson](https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/)  ## Chris Wilson Apr 11, 2017 5:36 PM UTC  by [Chris Wilson](https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/)  ## Chris Wilson Apr 11, 2017 5:36 PM UTC For millions of Americans, retirement doesn’t just involve more time to fix up the house. It involves swapping out the house itself for one in a warmer climate. A TIME analysis of four years of Census records found that, among the 3.3 million people age 50 and over who were no longer in the work force and choose to move between states, their destinations were overwhelmingly clustered in just a few places: Florida, Arizona and the coast of South Carolina. [_Click here for more articles_](http://time.com/money/topic/looking-forward/) _from Time Inc.’s Looking Forward series._ Of the top locations, number one is Sumter County, Fla., which is home to the infamous retirement community [The Villages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FVillages,%5FFlorida) and has the highest median age of any county in Florida. [Lake Havasu City, Ariz.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake%5FHavasu%5FCity,%5FArizona) is a close second, following by Hilton Head Island, S.C. A handful of other states have smaller clusters of retirees. 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