North Dakota ranked No. 2 for aging in place in national study

The study analyzed data from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Census Bureau, and the Department of Transportation. Researchers evaluated all 50 states and the District of Columbia across 10 factors, including home health aide availability, emergency room wait times, weather safety, housing costs and access to services like senior meal delivery.

North Dakota earned the No. 2 spot due to its top-ranked emergency room speed, with an average wait time of 110 minutes. It also reported the highest rate of senior-focused food deliveries under the Older Americans Act, with 11,069 meals delivered per 100,000 older adults. The state ranked second for low housing cost burden, with only 17.1% of homeowners aged 65 and older spending more than 30% of their income on housing.

Utah was named the safest state overall. Other states in the top 10 include New Jersey, Idaho, Texas, Nebraska, California, New Mexico, Kansas and Washington.

Florida was ranked the most dangerous state for aging in place, due to long ER wait times, low availability of home health aides — averaging 56 seniors per aide — and weather risks such as hurricanes and high annual precipitation.

The study found that the safest states tend to be in the West and Midwest, while the most dangerous were largely in the Southeast. Rankings and full methodology are available at Seniorly.com.