East LakeFL
33,283 people live in this town in Florida.
Is East Lake a good place to live?
East Lake’s lowest grade is for cost of living: the typical home is worth about $488K, 6.6 years of the Tampa metro’s $74K median household income. Overall, East Lake earns a C+: better than 38% of U.S. towns, and 266th of 634 in Florida. Where it does best is health: residents are healthier than 84% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. It also does well on incomes (A−): the median household earns $99K. 36% of the land here is conserved, where Florida’s towns sit at 3% and U.S. towns at 4.3%. Brooker Creek Preserve, at 7,338 acres with 5.2 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve. Only 56 of Florida’s 779 towns score higher on the outdoors. Half of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in the town, above both the Florida town median (31%) and the median of U.S. towns (29%).
Figures: health, CDC PLACES · incomes, Census ACS, 2020–24 · home values, Zillow · USGS PAD-US · OpenStreetMap.
95% of working residents leave East Lake for work
Where East Lake’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How East Lake grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Florida), ordered by how far East Lake is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Tropicana Field and 46 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around East Lake. Close and well known come first.
Big draw25 mi Stadium & arenaTropicana Field
Big draw15 mi Stadium & arenaRaymond James Stadium
19 mi Stadium & arenaBenchmark International Arena
17 mi Theme parkBusch Gardens Tampa3.8M visitors a year
18 mi Stadium & arenaYuengling Center
25 mi MuseumSalvador Dalí MuseumPhoto credits
Tropicana Field: EaglesFanInTampa, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Raymond James Stadium: NASA, Public domain · Benchmark International Arena: Miosotis Jade, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Busch Gardens Tampa: Wolle8ball, CC BY 3.0 · Yuengling Center: User:TheCustomOfLife, Public domain · Salvador Dalí Museum: Taty2007, CC BY 3.0
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Moving to East Lake: who provides what
East Lake is unincorporated, so Pinellas County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 17, 2025.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in East Lake.
East Lake keeps more of its land conserved than most of Florida and has milder winter nights than nearly all U.S. towns, but it has homes that cost more against local pay than most of Florida.
Nearly a third of East Lake is conserved land
Its 7,258 conserved acres are a larger share of the town than in 98% of Florida towns.
Trails run 14 miles in 2 parks and preserves. The trail network density for East Lake comes to 0.4 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Brooker Creek Preserve | 5.2 mi | 7,338 |
| 2. John Chesnut Sr. Park | 3.3 mi | 261 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Public schools in East Lake beat 58% of Florida districts
The largest public high school is East Lake High School, with 1,980 students. The Pinellas school district runs its public schools. Three of its 8 schools are shown below, with the reason for each.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cypress Woods Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 676 | A+ |
| East Lake High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,980 | B |
| East Lake Middle School Academy of EngineeringTop results in townGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 392 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within FL on state tests and graduation
East Lake’s grade for health is an A−
Its widest gap with Florida is food insecurity: 8.4% of its 26,575 adults worry about having enough food, against 16.8% statewide.
Of 31 CDC measures, East Lake beats the Florida average on 15 and trails it on 2. Nearly a third of adults sleep under 7 hours locally.
| East Lake | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 16% | 17% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 37% | 36% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 9.8% | 13% | 14% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 25% | 25% |
| What stands out | East Lake | FL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 8.4% | 16.8% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 8.3% | 15.9% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 12.5% | 9.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
With only 0.4 jobs per working resident, most people in East Lake work out of town
Jobs based here grew from 4,256 in 2013 to 6,113. 25.8% of workers work from home, against 15.7% across Florida.
East Lake: 6.2% of residents live below the poverty line. For most workers, East Lake is a place to come home to: only 5% work in town. Jobs in East Lake grew by 1,857 from 2013 to 2023, reaching 6,113. The top destinations are Tampa (11%), Clearwater (10%) and Largo (8%).
| East Lake | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 26% | 14% | 11% |
| Median household income | $99,000 | $73,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 6.2% | 11% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 28 minutes | 27 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Natural hazards: high risk in East Lake, mostly inland flooding
FEMA expects more storm and flood damage in East Lake than in 72% of U.S. communities. Since 1979, East Lake has seen 52 flood insurance claims paid out. Federal aid has come to East Lake households in 4 declared disasters; the latest was in 2024.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The climate in East Lake brings mild winters and hot summers
January nights average 49.4°, milder than in 98% of U.S. towns; July afternoons average 90.4°.
Snow is a rarity. The January low in the town is 49°F.
| East Lake | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January low | 49°F | 51°F | 22°F |
| July high | 90°F | 91°F | 85°F |
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The median home in East Lake sells for about $562K
At 6.6 years of the Tampa metro’s $74K median household income, the typical home costs more against local pay than in 80% of Florida towns; that ratio is one input to its D− for cost of living.
For East Lake, the median rent is $1,942 a month. The share of households in East Lake who live in a home they own: 83%. A home in East Lake typically sold within 64 days of listing.
| East Lake | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,942 a month | $1,647 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 83% | 72% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Everything we know about East Lake
Colleges nearby
4 within 15 miles of the center of East Lake
About 5 of every 100 East Lake residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Florida.
About East Lake
Census-designated place in Florida, United States
East Lake is a census-designated place (CDP) in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It was one of the last areas in the densely populated county to develop and often confused with East Lake in neighboring Hillsborough County. The population was 32,344 at the 2020 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 32 sq mi
- Elevation
- 13 ft
- Area code
- 727
East Lake’s neighbors
6 towns share a border with East Lake.
| Town | FL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Lake | #266 | C+ | D− | — | B | A− |
| Tarpon Springs | #293 | C+ | C− | C+ | B | B |
| Oldsmar | #238 | C+ | C− | C+ | B | B+ |
| Palm Harbor | #216 | C+ | D | — | B | B+ |
| Keystone | #234 | C+ | D | — | C+ | A |
| Trinity | #226 | C+ | D− | — | B | A− |
| Westchase | #144 | B− | D− | — | C+ | A+ |
East Lake, Palm Harbor, Keystone, Trinity and Westchase report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare East Lake with a neighbor →
Questions about East Lake
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is East Lake, FL a good place to live?
East Lake grades C+ overall, better than 38% of U.S. towns and #266 of 634 in Florida. It grades A− for health and B for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D−.
Is East Lake, FL expensive?
Yes. The typical home is worth about $488,000, 30% above the Florida typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D−.