Photo: Connor J. Williams · CC BY 3.0Lake Alfred has 0.4 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Lake Alfred has 1,252 jobs, and 3,278 of its residents work somewhere. Jobs and income earn Lake Alfred C+; getting around on foot earns it A−. Only 4% stay in Lake Alfred for work; outside it, Lakeland is the main destination (9%, 16 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What’s behind Lake Alfred’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Lake Alfred is better than 40% of U.S. towns, #418 of 638 in Florida. Job access by car holds Lake Alfred’s grade up (ahead of 61% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (6.5%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lake Alfred could be anywhere from C− to A.
Who commutes out of Lake Alfred, and who commutes in
On a workday 3,161 residents head out to work, 117 work right here, and 1,135 people come in from elsewhere.
About 8,100 people are in Lake Alfred on a workday afternoon, 20% 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 2023, primary jobs.
Out of Lake Alfred to work: where people go
Where Lake Alfred clocks in
9% of workers
8% of workers
7% 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.
29% of the jobs in Lake Alfred make or build things
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lake Alfred, 2013 → 2023: 1,166 → 1,252. 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 Lake Alfred’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 32 minutes to work from Lake Alfred
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lake Alfred workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,006 commuters (the 13% 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 it is to work from Lake Alfred
About 20% 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.
Lake Alfred is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lake Alfred is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns, #254 of 638 in Florida. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.6% across Florida, on an EPA index of 7.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,450 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). <1% 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 under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 5.5% of Lake Alfred households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lake Alfred’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,975th of 2,878: where Lake Alfred ranks among 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 1,973 | LaFayette GA | 7,157 | $46K | 14.3% | 0.6% | 28% | C+ |
| 1,974 | Round Lake Park IL | 7,844 | $56K | 8.7% | 8.6% | <1% | C+ |
| 1,975 | Lake Alfred FL | 10,107 | $67K | 9.4% | 6.5% | 4% | C+ |
| 1,976 | Dalhart TX | 8,377 | $72K | 12.3% | 2.5% | 28% | C+ |
| 1,977 | Arcadia NY | 13,522 | $63K | 17.9% | 2.6% | 23% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Lake Alfred, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
14% of Lake Alfred works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Winter Haven (8%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lake Alfred workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Alfred | – | C+ | A− | 32 min | $67,202 |
| Winter Haven | 8% | C | B | 28 min | $59,648 |
| Auburndale | 3% | B | C+ | 33 min | $77,911 |
| Haines City | 3% | C+ | B− | 36 min | $65,975 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Lake Alfred’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 Lake Alfred: questions
What is the median household income in Lake Alfred?
$67,202 (±$19,104) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lake Alfred?
9.4%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lake Alfred?
32 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lake Alfred work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lakeland (9%, 16 mi), Winter Haven (8%, 6 mi), Lake Buena Vista (7%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lake Alfred walkable?
Lake Alfred is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lake Alfred without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lake Alfred, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lake Alfred
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.