Gateway’s household incomes are higher than in 82% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Gateway A−; getting around on foot earns it C. 3.6% of residents live below the poverty line; Florida has 12.6%. Home is the office for 23% of workers, next to 16% for Florida as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Gateway stands out on work
Where Gateway’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Gateway is better than 79% of U.S. towns, #109 of 638 in Florida. The poverty rate holds Gateway’s grade up; unemployment pulls it down (4.7%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Gateway could be anywhere from B to A+.
About 31 minutes each way, longer than most of Florida
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gateway workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,050 commuters (the 23% 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.
Who commutes out of Gateway, and who commutes in
On a workday 4,770 residents head out to work, 258 work right here, and 3,216 people come in from elsewhere.
About 9,600 people are in Gateway on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.69 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
20% of working residents work in Fort Myers
Where Gateway clocks in
20% of workers
4% 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.
65% of the jobs in Gateway pay over $3,333 a month
3,474 jobs are based in Gateway.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gateway, 2013 → 2023: 2,954 → 3,474. 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 Gateway’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Gateway’s commute, mile by mile
About 23% 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.
In Gateway, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Gateway is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns, #550 of 638 in Florida.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 5,269 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% 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). 1.2% of Gateway households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Gateway’s commuters take a bus or train.
Gateway is 791st of 2,507 U.S. towns of 8,000 to 15,000 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 235 | Key Biscayne FL | 14,815 | $182K | 5.5% | 2.8% | 12% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 301 | Asbury Lake FL | 14,458 | $101K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 322 | Westlake FL | 9,042 | $132K | 3.2% | 2.8% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 789 | Tyngsborough MA | 12,721 | $129K | 6.6% | 5.5% | 6% | A− |
| 790 | Montecito CA | 9,031 | $231K | 8.3% | 4.0% | 9% | A− |
| 791 | Gateway FL | 11,176 | $107K | 3.6% | 4.7% | 5% | A− |
| 792 | Mounds View MN | 12,786 | $90K | 12.0% | 2.8% | 4% | A− |
| 793 | Raymond NH | 11,050 | $105K | 6.7% | 3.0% | 8% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,507 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 22% | 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 Gateway, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
Gateway and its neighbors: 20% work next door
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Gateway workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gateway | – | A− | C | 31 min | $107,484 |
| Fort Myers | 20% | C+ | A− | 25 min | $63,732 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Fort Myers. Darker towns draw more of Gateway’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 Gateway: questions
What is the median household income in Gateway?
$107,484 (±$9,985) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gateway?
3.6%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gateway?
31 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 23% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gateway work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Myers (20%, 6 mi), Cape Coral (4%, 16 mi), Villas (3%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gateway walkable?
Gateway is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gateway without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gateway, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gateway
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.