The Lancaster County area has bounced around in the top 10 on U.S. News & World Report’s annual Best Places to Retire list for at least the past five years, ranking No. 1 two years ago. So why did it fall to 72nd place this year?
It turns out that U.S. News & World Report has made significant changes to its ranking criteria this year. The results are no longer comparable to past efforts. And local nursing home executives aren’t particularly worried.
what happened?
Dawn Bradbury, deputy real estate editor at U.S. News & World Report, said the biggest change is the shift to looking at data for cities themselves, rather than metropolitan statistical areas, which have been the basis for rankings in the past. He said that he had moved on. For purposes of the 2025 list, Lancaster County regions were determined by address, not municipality, said spokeswoman Santierra Hutson.
That’s not all. The most important factor has shifted from affordability to happiness, which Bradbury says is the second biggest change this year.
Bradbury said the South and, to a lesser extent, the Midwest, will do well in 2025 due to the increased weight on happiness. U.S. News & World Report’s Happiness Index is further broken down into crime rate (50%) and air quality (15%). ), well-being (30%), and Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index (5%).
Bradbury said the entire list looks different as a result of the new methodology. For example, Pennsylvania’s metropolitan areas once dominated the top five, but the state no longer appears at the top of the 2025 list, with only Pittsburgh appearing at No. 33.
Bradbury said it’s tempting to compare ratings from year to year, but due to changes in methodology, they’re not accurate, especially this year.
leaders are not worried
Despite the change in methodology, the factors that bring people to Lancaster remain the same, Landis Community spokesman Larry Gengerich said.
Homestead Village Chairman Douglas Motter, Gengerich, and Sue Verdegem, President and CEO of United Zion Retirement Communities, each share a vision of the retirement community, its culture, and the metropolitan area. He pointed out why the Lancaster area is a good place for retirees, down to its proximity to the area.
“A lot of our seniors want to be close to their relatives, and they have relatives in this area and they’re actually seeing the medical services that they want, the recreational services that they want, the recreation services that they want. We think Lancaster County has that,” Werdehem said.
