RETIREES | Gray-Dependent U.S. Counties

The Tax Foundation, which often encourages states to lower their taxes, produces many comparative tables that interest me.

This week it compares U.S. counties  based on the percentage of the revenues of residents derived from retirement income.

The data from 2012 IRS records include all forms of taxable pensions including Social Security and distributions from IRA accounts.

The interactive map on the web site allows you to get county data by floating your cursor over a map of the USA. (Counties with very small populations are excluded.)

The three most gray-dependent (my term) counties are, naturally, in Florida - Sumter (45.6 percent dependent on retirement income), Charlotte (33.8 percent) and Citrus (33.2 percent) counties, all on Florida's Gulf coast. Northern Michigan and the Pacific Northwest are the other two areas of the United States that are the most gray-dependent.

On the Atlantic Coast side of Florida, the most gray-dependent county is Flagler (29 percent). The other counties along the coast that are at least 20 percent dependent on retirement incomes are Volusia, Brevard, Indian River and St. Lucie.