Portland, Oregon Tops Best Cities for Seniors Says New Study From Bankers Life and Casualty Company

Portland, Oregon Tops Best Cities for Seniors Says New Study From
Bankers Life and Casualty Company 


CHICAGO, July 28  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A new survey conducted for Bankers
Life and Casualty Company reveals Portland, Ore. is the best city in the United
States for senior living with Seattle, San Francisco, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh
rounding out the top five.

A panel of experts on gerontology and senior issues identified the qualities
for optimal senior living.  Major categories were: health, disease, economics,
social, environment, spiritual, transportation, housing, and crime. Each
category was statistically weighted to reflect the needs of the senior
population.

"We find the survey results contain some cities we don't often associate with
senior living," said Bankers' Chief Operating Officer Scott Perry.

"That's because we weren't looking for the best places to be retired, but the
best cities for seniors regardless of whether they are retired, working, active
or non, healthy or not.  It's about more than golf courses and tennis courts,"
he said.

Categories for the survey were suggested by Robert Butler, M.D., President and
CEO of the International Longevity Center, New York; Joan Frankel, Senior
Consultant of Health and Human Services, Metro Chicago Information Center; and
Susan Morisato, formerly Senior Vice President of Product Management and Chief
Actuary at Bankers.  The survey was conducted by veteran survey administrator
Sperling's Best Places and identified the top 50 metro areas in the U.S.

The categories

The Health category included criteria such as physician to senior ratio,
gerontologist to senior ratio, hospitals per capita, and availability of adult
day care, assisted living facilities, continuing care (CCRC) facilities,
independent living facilities, nursing homes, and senior meals.

Housing included cost of living, median home price, property taxes and monthly
apartment rent.

Transportation included public transportation, special access transportation,
and commuting times.

Social included the percentage of seniors, entertainment, the arts, museums,
education, recreation, colleges, and libraries.

Crime included violent crime and property crime.

Environment included sunny days, clean air, clean water, natural disaster risk,
ocean coastline, rivers and lakes, and national parks.

Economy included consumer prices, sales taxes, unemployment rate, and recent
job growth.

Disease included life expectancy, age 85 expectancy, depression rate, heart
disease, and cancer rates.

Spiritual included percent of population belonging to organized religions and
the number of religious congregations.

Bottom Five

Cities or metro areas ranking at positions 46-50 were: Riverside-San
Bernardino, Cal., Orange County, Cal., Nassau and Suffolk Counties, N.Y.,
Miami, Fla., and Bergen and Passaic Counties, N.J.  For a complete listing,
visit Bankers online at http://www.bankers.com/

About Bankers Life and Casualty Company

Established in 1879, Bankers is a subsidiary of Conseco, Inc.  Bankers focuses
exclusively on the insurance needs of seniors by offering a broad portfolio of
health and life insurance and retirement savings products designed especially
for seniors.  Visit Bankers online at http://www.bankers.com/ . 

DATASOURCE: Bankers Life and Casualty Company



CONTACT:  Linda Heacox of Bankers Life and Casualty Company,

[phone]



Web site:  http://www.bankers.com/

http://www.conseco.com/ 

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