Eureka! We will rank California’s best and worst cities for retiring

Where is the best place to retire in California?

Everyone has a different answer, depending on your tastes, pocketbook and depths of your dreams.

The Times plans to offer a data-driven ranking of some places that make sense.

California’s fastest-growing age group is people over 65, which means more senior citizens in the state are thinking about where to spend their retirement years.

Our analysis prioritized four main factors: climate, health and wellness, recreation and affordability.

We are eager to see what you think. If you have thoughts, please reach out to reporter Terry Castleman at terry.castleman@latimes.com.

Though retirement preferences can vary greatly person to person, those choosing a retirement locale would do well to accommodate change as they age, said Hal Hershfield, an associate professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Psychologically, “we don’t really know what our preferences are until we jump into something and then they change,” he said. “Life is very different between 65 and 75 compared to 85 and 95,” so planning for retirement requires accommodation for flexibility.

Proximity to family is often a “huge factor” for retirees, he said. Additionally, “people start prioritizing emotionally meaningful goals” like a sense of community, he said, so moving far from home could be a challenge without real infrastructure for building connections.

There is “real diversity in health and well-being” for retirees, Hershfield said, noting that some people are sedentary at 65, and others are running marathons into their nineties.

With that in mind, we adjusted the rankings to emphasize two factors which might be of outsize importance to retirees: price and health.

Look for our list later this week on latimes.com