Photo: Ebyabe · CC BY-SA 3.0Avon Park’s household incomes are lower than in 98% of U.S. towns
4% of workers work from home, against 16% across Florida. Poverty touches 23.3% of residents; Florida has 12.6%. The two grades for Avon Park are D− for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Avon Park at work: what stands out
Avon Park trades workers with the towns around it
Avon Park has about as many jobs (3,568) as working residents (3,591), but they are mostly different people: 3,180 residents leave for work each day while 3,157 people come in. Only 12% of the jobs in Avon Park are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
42% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Few Avon Park workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 16% across Florida. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Fewer than half of Avon Park workers earn over $40,000 a year
43% of Avon Park’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 16% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
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.
Why Avon Park gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Job access by car holds Avon Park’s grade up (ahead of 28% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($36,485, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Avon Park could be anywhere from D− to D.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 3,180 residents head out to work, 411 work right here, and 3,157 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.99 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Miles to work from Avon Park
About 42% 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.
Commuting from Avon Park: about 25 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Avon Park workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,343 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across Florida: 83% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
The 3,568 jobs based in Avon Park
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Avon Park, 2013 → 2023: 3,130 → 3,568. 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 Avon Park’s own residents hold wherever they work.
10% of working residents work in Sebring
Where Avon Park clocks in
10% of workers
2% of workers
2% 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.
Avon Park is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Avon Park is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns, #262 of 638 in Florida. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.6% across Florida.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,475 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 8.3% of Avon Park households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Avon Park’s commuters take a bus or train.
Avon Park and other U.S. towns of 7,000 to 14,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Southwest Ranches FL | 7,773 | $161K | 3.8% | 1.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 174 | Neptune Beach FL | 7,020 | $119K | 3.1% | 2.1% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 343 | Westlake FL | 9,042 | $132K | 3.2% | 2.8% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,841 | Seminole OK | 7,393 | $39K | 27.9% | 7.4% | 28% | D− |
| 2,842 | Tuba City AZ | 7,960 | $61K | 28.0% | 7.5% | 14% | D− |
| 2,843 | Avon Park FL | 10,514 | $36K | 23.3% | 9.2% | 11% | D− |
| 2,844 | Leitchfield KY | 7,015 | $44K | 24.3% | 10.2% | 36% | D− |
| 2,845 | Bennettsville SC | 7,565 | $37K | 28.4% | 12.5% | 22% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,878 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Avon Park, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
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 Avon Park: questions
What is the median household income in Avon Park?
$36,485 (±$4,055) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Avon Park?
23.3%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Avon Park?
25 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Avon Park work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sebring (10%, 9 mi), Winter Haven (2%, 34 mi), Lakeland (2%, 42 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Avon Park walkable?
Avon Park is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.9 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Avon Park without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Avon Park, from the people who make the trip.
More of Avon Park
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.