Thinking of where to land in retirement? You may not want to make Stockton your first choice if you agree with results of a survey from a personal finance website.
Stockton ranked dead last out of 182 cities around the nation in an analysis by WalletHub of best places to retire. The comparisons included data set ranges from the cost of living and tax laws to the availability of activities and the quality of healthcare.
Stockton scored lower than San Bernardino, Fresno and Bakersfield as places considered the worst for retirees. The Port City even ranked as a poorer choice than cities with rough-and-tumble reputations like Baltimore, Detroit and Newark, New Jersey.
The seat of San Joaquin County failed to score big in any of the four major components that went into the survey — affordability, quality of life, activities and healthcare.
Its best showing was 135th place on affordability, a category where all California cities generally fared poorly because of the state’s notoriously high taxes and overall living costs. It ranked even worse when it came to quality of life and healthcare.
But where it really came apart was in the activities category, where Stockton ranked in last place.
According to the survey, there aren’t enough things to do for retirees living in Stockton. The city fared no better than 138th in activity subcategories that included museums, theaters, art galleries and music, said Chip Lupo, a writer and analyst for WalletHub. This despite being home to the Haggin Museum, the Bob Hope Theatre and the century-old Stockton Symphony.
In other dings to its reputation, Stockton ranked 126th for violent crime, 132nd on its average cost of in-home care and 148th in adjusted cost of living. It was 150th when it comes to the strength of elder-abuse protections.
Still, among the otherwise dismal findings, there were positive aspects sprinkled into some of the survey’s subcategories. For instance, Stockton is 26th when it comes to availability of gerontologists per 10,000 residents age 65 or older, and it’s rated 77th for walkability, Lupo said.
It’s not that the city hasn’t tried to make life better for seniors. It operates the Oak Park Senior Center on east Fulton Street, which offers a fitness room, billiards parlor and social hall.
While the city’s new economic development director, Ricardo Noguera, works to attract more business and young working families, he remains enthusiastic about Stockton as a retirement haven.
Stockton is certainly more affordable than other Northern California cities, he said. Plus, there’s more to enjoy in terms of activities than many might realize. It helps, too, that the downtown area “is seeing a renaissance” as older, historic and architecturally significant buildings are rehabilitated and urban dwellers move in.
With five professional sports teams — including the new Stockton Thunder hockey team and the 2025 NBA G League champion Stockton Kings — “there’s a growing entertainment venue for locals and visitors alike to enjoy,” Noguera said.
“Stockton is an amazing community and offers its residents an assortment of opportunities, including boating, agriculture” and more, he wrote to Stocktonia. “Stockton is on the rise!”
The study underscores that success in retirement often depends on what you make of it. Those who seek out opportunities, involve themselves in activities and mingle with fellow Stocktonians are bound to be happier than those who don’t.
One 88-year-old who lives near Victory Park moved to Stockton four years ago and has no regrets. Most of all, he said, he loves the friendliness of the people around this fair city.
Never mind that Steve Squires hasn’t exactly retired. He spends six days a week repairing and selling privately owned one-armed bandits at his Squires & Corrie Slot Machines on Fremont Street. His shop is filled with the blinking, clanking machines. And if that weren’t enough, lately he has acquired a collection of clocks as well.
When he’s not working, he reads The New York Times and The Stockton Record every day, mingles with those nearby and enjoys his favorite restaurants.
Most of his friends are young — age 30 or a little older — not a “a bunch of geriatric geezers,” he said. He looks forward to talking with his neighbors, who are “awfully nice to me.”
As for restaurants, he considers Fondita Mexican Restaurant on Country Club Boulevard as among the best Mexican restaurants he’s ever tried.
He still plans to sell his business, as he told Stocktonia two years ago, but that won’t slow him down a bit.
“I will never have my feet up. You want to stay active,” he said.