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North Carolina has plenty of cities to love — but which place is the best for retirees?
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Raleigh ranks among the nation’s top destinations for healthcare, lower costs and other factors that appeal to older adults.
“We looked at nearly 1,000 locales to find 25 that offer the best retirement living at an affordable price,” business website Forbes said in a report published in May.
To create the list, Forbes said it studied U.S. cities that are home to more than 10,000 people. Using data from the federal government, Zillow and other sources, it determined how places fared when it came to economic and quality-of-life metrics.
Of the 25 places that earned spots on the national list, Raleigh was the only one in North Carolina. The city received nods for offering retirees good air quality and favorable tax rates, but the praise didn’t end there.
“Raleigh’s key economic factors are within striking distance of national norms,” including median home prices and cost of living, Forbes wrote in its report.
“As a college town (North Carolina State University, Shaw University) sitting in North Carolina’s famed high-tech Research Triangle, the area has a lot to offer, including good medical care.”
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But Forbes also found Raleigh fell short in some categories. It was determined to be “not very walkable or bikeable,” and the rate of “serious crime” was above the national average.
Still, it marks the fifth time that Raleigh has earned a spot on the Forbes retirement list since 2014. In recent years, the city also has landed in similar rankings from U.S. News & World Report and the rental resource Zumper, The News & Observer previously reported.
North Carolina’s capital city isn’t the only place in the state to make its mark as a retirement destination. Beaufort, Blowing Rock, Charlotte, Greensboro and Winston-Salem all have been named top places for older adults to live, The N&O previously reported.
On the latest list, Forbes published the nation’s top retirement destinations in alphabetical order, rather than in ranked order. Similar to last year, Raleigh joins several other college towns on the list.
Here are the other places that landed in the top 25:
Forbes didn’t immediately share additional information with The N&O on Monday, Aug. 10.
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This story was originally published August 10, 2026 at 1:19 PM.