With life expectancy steadily increasing, especially for the wealthy, there is a real risk that customers will end up outliving their money. As such, where a customer chooses to retire is taking on even greater importance than before.

A recent study by Bankrate ranked all 50 states in terms of attractiveness as a retirement destination. Its methodology applied weighted scores to each state based on five broad categories: affordability (40%), general well-being (25%), health care cost and quality (20%), weather (10%) and crime ( 5). %), which were combined to determine the overall state ranking.

While not all of these factors are directly related to money, items such as general well-being contribute to keeping clients healthy and happy, helping them better avoid potentially expensive medical treatments (whether physical, psychological, or others).

Delaware was the big winner this year, moving up to take first place after finishing second in the previous edition. Although it doesn't immediately come to mind as a top retirement destination, Delaware has no state or local sales tax, nor does it tax Social Security benefits. It also has lower property taxes than the rest of the country, averaging about $1,939 a year, according to ATTOM data.

Rounding out the top five, powered largely by strong performance in the affordability category, are West Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina and Missouri. Although, notably, most of these states struggle in the least weighted cost of health care and crime departments. Last year's No. 1, Iowa, took a tumble to No. 9 after big property tax and cost-of-living increases last year.

The bottom tier consists of expensive states, such as New York, California and, surprisingly, North Dakota, which despite being in the middle of the pack for affordability, was dragged down by poor performance on the cost and quality of health care, well-being general and weather.

Alaska was a nightmare, scoring poorly in basically every category.

Here are the rest of the 10 best and 10 worst states for retirement in 2024: