This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

DENVER — Colorado ranks as the second-best state when it comes to retirement according to a study released Wednesday.

The study by Bankrate.com placed only New Hampshire ahead of Colorado. Maine, Iowa and Minnesota rounded out the top five.

The highest-ranked states after Colorado in the Mountain or Pacific time zones were Idaho (No. 10), Utah (No. 11) and Arizona (No. 12).

Bankrate said it used eight criteria to rank the states, including cost of living, weather, health care quality, crime, taxes, cultural vitality, senior citizens’ well-being and the prevalence of other seniors.

Colorado ranked third for seniors’ well-being, seventh in health care quality and tied for eighth in cultural vitality. It ranked 46th in the prevalence of seniors.

The worst states for retirement were Alaska, West Virginia, Arkansas, New Mexico and Louisiana, according to the study.