Photo: Ebyabe · CC BY-SA 2.5A job hub: Bartow has 3.2 jobs per working resident, and 26,909 people come in to work
8% of workers have no commute at all, next to 16% for Florida as a whole. Employers in Bartow report 28,725 jobs for 9,047 working residents. Bartow grades C+ for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Bartow stands out on work
Bartow has far more jobs than workers
Bartow has 28,725 jobs, 3.2 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 43,000 people are in town, 83% more than the 24,000 who live here. Day and night ↓
Bartow and Lakeland trade workers both ways
Lakeland is the top workplace for Bartow residents (16%) and also where the most people who work in Bartow come from (10% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Bartow draws workers from far and wide
The 28,725 jobs in Bartow are filled from a wide area. Bartow’s own residents hold 6% and the ten next-biggest home towns 31%; the other 63% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
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.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Bartow
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Bartow is better than 39% of U.S. towns, #423 of 638 in Florida. Job access by car holds Bartow’s grade up (ahead of 64% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (18.1%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bartow could be anywhere from C− to B.
Who works in Bartow, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 7,231 residents head out to work and 1,816 work right here.
About 43,000 people are in Bartow on a workday afternoon, 83% more 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.
The daily trip into Bartow
Where Bartow clocks in
16% of workers
5% of workers
3% 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Bartow
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bartow, 2013 → 2023: 28,723 → 28,725. 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 Bartow’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 26 minutes from Bartow
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bartow workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 9,213 commuters (the 8% 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 commute from Bartow, by distance
About 22% 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.
Few in Bartow walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bartow is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns, #327 of 638 in Florida. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.1% 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 10,004 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 25% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 6% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 50% 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). 8.2% of Bartow households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Bartow’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,197th of 1,577: where Bartow ranks among U.S. towns of 17,000 to 32,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Pinecrest FL | 18,635 | $206K | 4.3% | 3.0% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 62 | Lake Butler FL | 17,125 | $183K | 3.7% | 2.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 86 | Palm Valley FL | 19,796 | $117K | 4.2% | 1.2% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,195 | Long Beach MS | 17,309 | $70K | 11.5% | 6.1% | 11% | C+ |
| 1,196 | Woodburn OR | 31,948 | $67K | 16.3% | 5.2% | 16% | C+ |
| 1,197 | Bartow FL | 23,617 | $68K | 18.1% | 4.4% | 20% | C+ |
| 1,198 | East Riverdale MD | 18,336 | $82K | 24.0% | 10.7% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,199 | Santa Paula CA | 31,774 | $79K | 14.2% | 6.8% | 12% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,577 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Bartow, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
Bartow and its neighbors
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Bartow workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bartow | – | C+ | B+ | 26 min | $68,178 |
| Highland City | under 1% | A− | B− | 29 min | $90,947 |
| Homeland | under 1% | — | — | 31 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Homeland: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Bartow’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 Bartow: questions
What is the median household income in Bartow?
$68,178 (±$7,603) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bartow?
18.1%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bartow?
26 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bartow work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lakeland (16%, 14 mi), Winter Haven (5%, 12 mi), Orlando (3%, 51 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bartow walkable?
Bartow is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 9.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bartow without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 6% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bartow, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bartow
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.