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Place dossier plate
SheetFL-WILDWOOD-FL · Wildwood, FL 16,739 pop · income 52nd pct
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 Wildwood
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Wildwood on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Belle Glade · lowest
47,191
Belle Glade · lowest
47,191 median HH income
32.3% of the leader · rank #1
Kent Acres · near
71,848
Kent Acres · near
71,848 median HH income
49.1% of the leader · rank #2
Center Point · near
71,848
Center Point · near
71,848 median HH income
49.1% of the leader · rank #3
Moses Lake · near
71,854
Moses Lake · near
71,854 median HH income
49.1% of the leader · rank #4
Billings · near
71,855
Billings · near
71,855 median HH income
49.1% of the leader · rank #5
Wildwood · this city
71,858
Wildwood · this city
71,858 median HH income
49.1% of the leader · rank #6
Cloverly · highest
146,316
Cloverly · highest
146,316 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 Wildwood 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: 16,739.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Wildwood lands in the 52nd percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
52nd
percentile, household income
79th
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: Wildwood, FL
Wildwood is a small town in Florida, home to 16,739 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Wildwood brings in $71,858 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.5%. Wildwood's housing stock carries a median value of $419,700, and the median resident age is 62.2 years. Educational attainment runs 38.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 35.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 2 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
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). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,526 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Florida's average monthly utility costs around $225 (state average). FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 75.7 out of 100 (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Wildwood'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 work and mobility to population change to comparison shortlist to housing and income to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Wildwood, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Wildwood?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 67.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Is Wildwood growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +3,477 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +21.8% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Wildwood?
Within Florida, the closest population matches are Lake Mary (16,724 residents, $116,944 income); Vero Beach (16,785 residents, $67,351 income); Mount Dora (16,812 residents, $69,931 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Pampa, TX (16,735 residents); Fullerton, PA (16,729 residents); Cloverly, MD (16,726 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.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Wildwood?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 10.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Wildwood?
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 38.0% 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.
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
Matched public schools
2
Bachelor's degree+
38.0%
Poverty estimate
10.5%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 10.5% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
103.4 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Florida average
D
City profile score · Wildwood, FL
45/100
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 B
38.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C-
$71,858
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
10.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
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).
Wildwood profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 72/100 (B) · 38.0%
Household income: 51/100 (C-) · $71,858
Poverty rate: 38/100 (F) · 10.5%
Cost of living: 25/100 (F) · 103.4 index
How does Wildwood compare to other US cities?
Here's how Wildwood stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income52% higher than other cities
Home value79% 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 Wildwood 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 Wildwood near the bottom of Florida's cities
Among the 930 Florida cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Wildwood ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Wildwood only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#405 of 903
55th percentile in Florida
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 930
0th percentile in Florida
Median Home Value
#213 of 894
76th percentile in Florida
Poverty Rate
#347 of 930
62nd percentile in Florida
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#273 of 930
71st 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
52nd percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Wildwood's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$419,70021st percentilemore affordable than 21% 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
Wildwood's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,963 of 15,516
More affordable than 10% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,929 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 5.8×, Wildwood sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,963 of 15,516 and #2,929 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$71,858Wildwood, FL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Wildwood, 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 Wildwood, FL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)38.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)35.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
16,739
Median Income
$71,858
Median Home Value
$419,700
Median Age
62.2
Poverty Rate
10.5%
Labor force participation
35.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
38.0%
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Wildwood's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
15,959 residents
2021
16,606 residents
2022
17,777 residents
2023
18,641 residents
2024
19,002 residents
2025
19,436 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
67.6%
Carpool
14.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
13.5%
Other
3.3%
Based on 5,168 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 Wildwood. 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 Wildwood 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 Wildwood sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Wildwood 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, NCES CCD, 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.