With 0.3 jobs for every working resident, most of Winter Gardens works elsewhere
Winter Gardens has 2,683 jobs; 10,256 of its residents have a job. For jobs and income Winter Gardens is better than 70% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns (A−). Measured by household income, Winter Gardens is ahead of 75% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Winter Gardens, in brief
Winter Gardens and San Diego trade workers both ways
San Diego is the top workplace for Winter Gardens residents (36%) and also where the most people who work in Winter Gardens come from (21% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Winter Gardens is a place people come home to
There are 2,683 jobs based in Winter Gardens, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Winter Gardens has about 15,000 people in it, 34% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Winter Gardens
Job access by car holds Winter Gardens’ grade up (ahead of 88% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (5.2%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Winter Gardens could be anywhere from B− to A.
36% of working residents work in San Diego
Where Winter Gardens clocks in
36% of workers
10% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
A workday in Winter Gardens: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 9,961 residents head out to work, 295 work right here, and 2,388 people come in from elsewhere.
About 15,000 people are in Winter Gardens on a workday afternoon, 34% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Winter Gardens works in goods: 28% of its jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Winter Gardens, 2013 → 2023: 2,275 → 2,683. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Winter Gardens’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 26 minutes from Winter Gardens
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Winter Gardens workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 9,205 commuters (the 14% who work from home are left out). Across California: 79% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
How many miles Winter Gardens commutes
About 16% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Winter Gardens
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 7.1% across California.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 10,646 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 79% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 30% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 6.4% of Winter Gardens households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Winter Gardens’ commuters take a bus or train.
How Winter Gardens ranks: 873rd of 1,847 U.S. towns of 15,000 to 30,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Wolf Trap VA | 15,858 | $250K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 51 | Orinda CA | 19,507 | $250K | 2.2% | 3.4% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 120 | Coto de Caza CA | 15,190 | $244K | 3.0% | 3.4% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 166 | Lafayette CA | 25,313 | $228K | 2.9% | 4.3% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 871 | Maitland FL | 19,511 | $97K | 10.4% | 4.8% | 10% | B+ |
| 872 | Northbridge MA | 16,799 | $111K | 7.9% | 6.1% | 11% | B+ |
| 873 | Winter Gardens CA | 22,131 | $98K | 9.3% | 5.2% | 3% | B+ |
| 874 | Gladstone MO | 27,497 | $79K | 11.0% | 3.3% | 5% | B+ |
| 875 | Troutdale OR | 15,776 | $89K | 7.4% | 4.9% | 7% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,847 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Winter Gardens, the top three, the last and three more from California.
17% of Winter Gardens works in a town next door
The biggest share goes to El Cajon (10%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Winter Gardens workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Gardens | – | B+ | A− | 26 min | $97,973 |
| Santee | 4% | A− | A− | 27 min | $113,394 |
| Lakeside | 3% | B | A− | 26 min | $96,447 |
| El Cajon | 10% | C | A | 25 min | $67,511 |
| Bostonia | under 2% | B− | A | 25 min | $78,878 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Winter Gardens’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Winter Gardens: questions
What is the median household income in Winter Gardens?
$97,973 (±$9,607) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Winter Gardens?
9.3%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Winter Gardens?
26 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Winter Gardens work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are San Diego (36%, 11 mi), El Cajon (10%, 3 mi), Santee (4%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Winter Gardens walkable?
Winter Gardens is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 11.8 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Winter Gardens without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 30% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Winter Gardens, from the people who make the trip.
More of Winter Gardens
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.