Photo: David Wilson · CC BY 2.0Cape Coral has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.5 for each
There are 42,078 jobs in Cape Coral for 81,232 working residents. The two grades for Cape Coral are B for jobs and income and B for walkability. About one in five stay in Cape Coral for work; outside it, Fort Myers is the main destination (19%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Cape Coral apart
Jobs & income in Cape Coral: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cape Coral is better than 57% of U.S. towns, #277 of 638 in Florida. Job access by car holds Cape Coral’s grade up (ahead of 62% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (10.7%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income and unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cape Coral could be anywhere from B− to B.
The kinds of work in Cape Coral
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cape Coral, 2014 → 2024: 27,273 → 42,078. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Cape Coral’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Cape Coral, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 63,113 residents head out to work, 18,119 work right here, and 23,959 people come in from elsewhere.
About 197,000 people are in Cape Coral on a workday afternoon, 17% 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 2024, primary jobs.
Where Cape Coral goes to work
Where Cape Coral clocks in
19% 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.
How long Cape Coral spends getting to work: about 30 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cape Coral workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 84,143 commuters (the 15% 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.
How far Cape Coral’s workers travel
About 25% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Few in Cape Coral walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cape Coral is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns, #370 of 638 in Florida. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.5% 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 98,991 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 42% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 4% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 64% 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). 3.5% of Cape Coral households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Cape Coral’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Cape Coral is 50th of 109 U.S. towns of 165,000 to 319,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Hempstead NY | 238,982 | $158K | 4.5% | 4.1% | 20% | A |
| 2 | Oyster Bay NY | 301,115 | $160K | 3.9% | 4.6% | 19% | A |
| 3 | Frisco TX | 236,955 | $150K | 3.6% | 4.6% | 14% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Pembroke Pines FL | 176,714 | $85K | 10.0% | 4.1% | 10% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 48 | Ontario CA | 187,013 | $89K | 12.4% | 6.3% | 15% | B |
| 49 | Oxnard CA | 199,651 | $96K | 11.0% | 6.5% | 28% | B |
| 50 | Cape Coral FL | 236,264 | $78K | 10.7% | 3.8% | 22% | B |
| 51 | Tacoma WA | 229,816 | $86K | 12.4% | 5.6% | 28% | B |
| 52 | Fort Lauderdale FL | 188,677 | $83K | 15.0% | 5.3% | 26% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 54 | St. Petersburg FL | 264,033 | $75K | 12.5% | 4.7% | 32% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 62 | Port St. Lucie FL | 268,062 | $81K | 9.5% | 6.0% | 17% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 109 | Shreveport LA | 175,902 | $49K | 23.5% | 9.0% | 61% | C− |
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 Cape Coral, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
Next door is work for 21% of Cape Coral
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Cape Coral workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cape Coral | – | B | B | 30 min | $78,104 |
| North Fort Myers | 2% | C | A− | 28 min | $56,261 |
| Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores | under 1% | — | — | — | — |
| Fort Myers | 19% | C+ | A− | 25 min | $63,732 |
| Burnt Store Marina | under 1% | B | D | 25 min | $93,250 |
| Lochmoor Waterway Estates | under 1% | B+ | B+ | 32 min | $97,667 |
Same-state neighbors only. Matlacha Isles-Matlacha Shores: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Fort Myers. Darker towns draw more of Cape Coral’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 2024, 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 Cape Coral: questions
What is the median household income in Cape Coral?
$78,104 (±$2,925) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cape Coral?
10.7%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cape Coral?
30 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cape Coral work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Myers (19%, 10 mi), Villas (3%, 11 mi), North Fort Myers (2%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Cape Coral walkable?
Cape Coral is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 9.2 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cape Coral without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 4% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cape Coral, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cape Coral
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.