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Place dossier plate
SheetFL-WINTER-HAVEN-FL · Winter Haven, FL 52,846 pop · income 35th 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 Winter Haven
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Winter Haven on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Elyria · lowest
53,204
Elyria · lowest
53,204 median HH income
41.2% of the leader · rank #1
Sugarcreek · near
59,594
Sugarcreek · near
59,594 median HH income
46.1% of the leader · rank #2
Winter Haven · this city
59,604
Winter Haven · this city
59,604 median HH income
46.1% of the leader · rank #3
Midway · near
59,609
Midway · near
59,609 median HH income
46.1% of the leader · rank #4
Bonner-West R… · near
59,609
Bonner-West R… · near
59,609 median HH income
46.1% of the leader · rank #5
Strasburg · near
59,614
Strasburg · near
59,614 median HH income
46.1% of the leader · rank #6
Edina · highest
129,225
Edina · highest
129,225 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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Winter Haven on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. 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: 52,846.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Winter Haven - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Winter Haven places in the 35th percentile for household income and the 37th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
35th
percentile, household income
55th
percentile, home value
73rd
percentile, median rent
37th
percentile, safety
📝 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: Winter Haven, FL
52,846 people live in Winter Haven, Florida - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $59,604 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 13.8%. Home values in Winter Haven run a median of $248,200, and the median resident age is 40.6 years. Educational attainment runs 22.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 53.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 1,061 residential building permits were authorized in Winter Haven (Rapid Growth), up 40% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Winter Haven reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1784.7 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 74.2°F with 52.0 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). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,526 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Florida run around $225, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Winter Haven'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 climate and hazard context to housing and income to population change to schools and households to comparison shortlist to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Winter Haven, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Winter Haven?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 80.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
What physical conditions frame life in Winter Haven?
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 74.2°F, with 52.0 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Winter Haven?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Winter Haven?
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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Within Florida, the closest population matches are Westchester (53,082 residents, $75,905 income); Pinellas Park (53,423 residents, $62,043 income); Kendale Lakes (52,141 residents, $69,150 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Elyria, OH (52,833 residents); Normal, IL (52,908 residents); Grand Island, NE (52,761 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.
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.
Population change
Is Winter Haven growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +11,621 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +22.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1,061 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.
2020 estimate
50,692
2025 estimate
62,313
Period change
+22.9%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the education layer cover for Winter Haven?
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 20 public schools within the city match. 22.2% 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
13.8%
Bachelor's degree+
22.2%
Matched public schools
20
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Winter Haven?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1784.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 22% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
Total reported rate
1784.7
Violent rate
235.5
Property rate
1549.2
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Below median income · poverty 13.8% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
103.4 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Florida average
F
City profile score · Winter Haven, FL
33/100
5 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.
Violent crime D
236 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share D
22.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$59,604
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.8%
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.
Winter Haven profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 42/100 (D) · 236 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 41/100 (D) · 22.2%
Household income: 34/100 (F) · $59,604
Poverty rate: 25/100 (F) · 13.8%
Cost of living: 25/100 (F) · 103.4 index
Where Winter Haven sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Winter Haven's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Winter Haven highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Winter Haven, FL (this city): home $248,200, crime 1,785/100k
Elyria, OH : home $142,800, crime 1,771/100k
Normal, IL : home $199,900, crime 1,879/100k
Grand Island, NE : home $202,600, crime 2,128/100k
Novato, CA : home $1,007,100, crime 1,608/100k
Methuen, MA : home $472,200, crime 972/100k
Edina, MN : home $624,000, crime 1,563/100k
Pinellas Park, FL : home $251,900, crime 2,440/100k
How does Winter Haven compare to other US cities?
Winter Haven measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income35% higher than other cities
Home value55% pricier than other cities
Median rent73% pricier than other cities
Safety37% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Florida alone, Winter Haven ranks #59 of 120 Florida cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Winter Haven 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 Winter Haven near the bottom of Florida's cities
Among the 930 Florida cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Winter Haven ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Winter Haven only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#604 of 903
33rd percentile in Florida
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 930
0th percentile in Florida
Median Home Value
#575 of 894
36th percentile in Florida
Poverty Rate
#232 of 930
75th percentile in Florida
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#560 of 930
40th 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
35th percentile nationally for median household income · 37th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Winter Haven's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Winter Haven's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Winter Haven's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$248,20045th percentilemore affordable than 45% 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
Winter Haven's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,151 of 15,516
More affordable than 28% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#329 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 4.2×, Winter Haven sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,151 of 15,516 and #329 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
$59,604Winter Haven, FL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Winter Haven, 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 Winter Haven, FL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
52,846
Median Income
$59,604
Median Home Value
$248,200
Median Age
40.6
Poverty Rate
13.8%
Labor force participation
53.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1784.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
235.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1549.2
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
74.2°F
Annual Precipitation
52.0"
Annual Snowfall
0.0"
Schools
Total Schools
20
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Winter Haven's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
50,692 residents
2021
52,854 residents
2022
55,371 residents
2023
57,679 residents
2024
60,033 residents
2025
62,313 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
1,061
housing units authorized
Single-Family
845
detached homes
Multifamily
216
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
20.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
757
757
0
$183.2M
2020
887
887
0
$211.7M
2021
1,007
1,007
0
$241.2M
2022
869
869
0
$207.9M
2023
1,153
801
352
$227.8M
2024
1,061
845
216
$225.0M
Permit volume increased 40% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
80.8%
Carpool
6.3%
Public Transit
0.3%
Walk
0.5%
Work from Home
9.8%
Other
2.3%
Based on 22,974 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 Winter Haven. 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 Winter Haven 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 Winter Haven sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Winter Haven 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, FBI UCR, 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.