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Place dossier plate
SheetFL-LAKELAND-FL · Lakeland, FL 117,030 pop · income 37th pct · 174 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Lakeland
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lakeland on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Evansville · lowest
52,251
Evansville · lowest
52,251 median HH income
37.0% of the leader · rank #1
Girard · near
60,938
Girard · near
60,938 median HH income
43.1% of the leader · rank #2
Spirit Lake · near
60,938
Spirit Lake · near
60,938 median HH income
43.1% of the leader · rank #3
Wanatah · near
60,938
Wanatah · near
60,938 median HH income
43.1% of the leader · rank #4
Wingdale · near
60,946
Wingdale · near
60,946 median HH income
43.1% of the leader · rank #5
Lakeland · this city
60,947
Lakeland · this city
60,947 median HH income
43.1% of the leader · rank #6
The Woodlands · highest
141,353
The Woodlands · highest
141,353 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Lakeland on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 117,030.
Nationally, Lakeland sits in the 37th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
37th
percentile, household income
51st
percentile, home value
73rd
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Lakeland, FL
Florida's Lakeland is a mid-sized U.S. city, with 117,030 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $60,947 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.6%. Lakeland's housing stock carries a median value of $229,100, and the median resident age is 39.9 years. Educational attainment runs 27.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 52.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 380 residential building permits were authorized in Lakeland (Construction Slowdown), down 76% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 73.9°F with 56.8 inches of precipitation per year.
Florida carries a cost-of-living premium: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Florida at 103.4 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Above Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,526 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $225 across Florida, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 20.8 minutes, with 73.7% driving alone and 11.6% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 75.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Lakeland's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from within-city variation to housing and income to comparison shortlist to population change to climate and hazard context to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lakeland, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, local building permits, matched public-school count, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What can 174 Census tracts reveal inside Lakeland?
PlainCities matches 174 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
How far does income reach against housing in Lakeland?
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 10.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lakeland?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
Within Florida, the closest population matches are Clearwater (117,075 residents, $64,440 income); Brandon (116,365 residents, $77,068 income); Spring Hill (118,814 residents, $66,557 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are The Woodlands, TX (116,916 residents); North Charleston, SC (117,460 residents); Evansville, IN (116,441 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Is Lakeland growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +11,658 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +10.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 380 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Lakeland?
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 73.9°F, with 56.8 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Florida is 75.7 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
75.7
Annual precipitation
56.8 in
Mean temperature
73.9°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
The NCES join finds 60 public schools within the city match. 27.7% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
Poverty estimate
10.6%
Bachelor's degree+
27.7%
Matched public schools
60
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Lakeland?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 73.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 20.8 minutes.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Drive alone
73.7%
Work from home
11.6%
Public transit
0.5%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 50,850 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 10.6% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
103.4 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Florida average
F
City profile score · Lakeland, FL
37/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Bachelor's+ share C-
27.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
10.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$60,947
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Cost of living F
103.4 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Lakeland profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 54/100 (C-) · 27.7%
Poverty rate: 37/100 (F) · 10.6%
Household income: 36/100 (F) · $60,947
Cost of living: 25/100 (F) · 103.4 index
How does Lakeland compare to other US cities?
Lakeland measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income37% higher than other cities
Home value51% pricier than other cities
Median rent73% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Lakeland against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Florida only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Florida-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Lakeland near the bottom of Florida's cities
Among the 930 Florida cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lakeland ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lakeland only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#585 of 903
35th percentile in Florida
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 930
0th percentile in Florida
Median Home Value
#624 of 894
30th percentile in Florida
Poverty Rate
#344 of 930
63rd percentile in Florida
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#463 of 930
50th percentile in Florida
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Florida only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
37th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Lakeland's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$229,10049th percentilemore affordable than 49% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Lakeland's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,916 of 15,516
More affordable than 36% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#273 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 3.8×, Lakeland sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,916 of 15,516 and #273 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$60,947Lakeland, FL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lakeland, FL median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Lakeland, FL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)27.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)52.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
117,030
Median Income
$60,947
Median Home Value
$229,100
Median Age
39.9
Poverty Rate
10.6%
Labor force participation
52.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
27.7%
Climate
Avg Temperature
73.9°F
Annual Precipitation
56.8"
Annual Snowfall
0.0"
Schools
Total Schools
60
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lakeland's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
113,862 residents
2021
117,420 residents
2022
120,693 residents
2023
123,221 residents
2024
124,889 residents
2025
125,520 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
380
housing units authorized
Single-Family
312
detached homes
Multifamily
68
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
1,559
606
953
$230.0M
2020
1,224
741
483
$225.8M
2021
1,249
858
391
$239.4M
2022
869
403
466
$144.7M
2023
998
409
589
$190.5M
2024
380
312
68
$97.1M
Permit volume decreased 76% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
20.8 minutes
Drive Alone
73.7%
Carpool
8.2%
Public Transit
0.5%
Walk
2.7%
Work from Home
11.6%
Other
3.3%
Based on 50,850 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Florida statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $225
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Florida at $225 (electricity about $145 , water and sewer about $55 ).
These are Florida statewide averages, not a meter reading for Lakeland. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Florida's BEA cost-of-living index is 103.4 (Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Lakeland is $1,526/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Florida statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 75.7 / 100 (High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Florida statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Lakeland sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lakeland compares to similar-size Florida cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.