Crossville has been ranked the 2nd best place to retire in Tennessee.  Financial advisor web-site SmartAsset researches retirement locations for their clients as one of their services.  Neighboring Sparta Tennessee was ranked 4th as a desirable retirement destination.  Winchester Tennessee came in first as the ideal retirement area in the state. Rounding out the top ten were: #3-Fayetteville, #5-Loudon, #6 Dayton, #7 Paris, #8 Kingsport, #9 Pulaski and #10 Lexington TN.  Below is the methodology the company says they used to derive the top ten best retirement cities in the state.

First, we looked at state and local tax rates, considering two types of taxes: income and sales. We calculated effective rates based on a typical retiree, earning $35,000 annually (from retirement savings, social security or part-time employment), and spending their disposable income on taxable goods. Next, we determined the number of doctors’ offices, recreation centers and retirement centers per thousand residents in each area. Finally, we found the number of seniors in each area as a percentage of the total population.

In our final analysis, we ranked each county and city on these three factors, and calculated an average ranking for each area, weighting the three factors equally. The areas with the lowest average ranking are the best places to retire.