Photo: Ebyabe · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Lake Placid are lower than in 91% of U.S. towns
About one in seven work in Lake Placid; the top destination outside it is Sebring (7%, 13 miles). 23.8% of residents are in poverty, where Florida as a whole has 12.6%. The two grades for Lake Placid are D− for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Lake Placid, in brief
Lake Placid is where the jobs are
Lake Placid has 1,748 jobs, 2.0 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
46% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Fewer than half of Lake Placid workers earn over $40,000 a year
43% of Lake Placid’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 17% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
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; with 896 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Lake Placid
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Lake Placid is better than 4% of U.S. towns, #627 of 638 in Florida. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Lake Placid’s grade.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lake Placid could be anywhere from D− to C+.
How many people are in Lake Placid by day
On a workday 762 residents head out to work, 134 work right here, and 1,614 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,500 people are in Lake Placid on a workday afternoon, 33% more than live here.
2.0 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
The distance from Lake Placid to work
About 46% 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.
The kinds of work in Lake Placid
1,748 jobs are based in Lake Placid.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lake Placid, 2013 → 2023: 1,654 → 1,748. 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 Placid’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Lake Placid’s workers come from
Where Lake Placid clocks in
7% of workers
2% of workers
1% 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.
A commute of about 27 minutes in Lake Placid
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lake Placid workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 858 commuters (the 9% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Lake Placid
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lake Placid is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns, #188 of 638 in Florida. Both inputs place Lake Placid near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 941 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 9.7% of Lake Placid households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lake Placid’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,800 to 3,500, and where Lake Placid sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 63 | Geneva FL | 3,441 | $133K | 0.6% | 0.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 65 | Windermere FL | 3,344 | $178K | 1.3% | 2.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 96 | Atlantis FL | 2,140 | $117K | 3.6% | 3.9% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,823 | Frazier Park CA | 2,681 | $48K | 22.2% | 6.2% | 10% | D− |
| 4,824 | Cedar Bluff AL | 1,948 | $53K | 29.3% | 3.9% | 2% | D− |
| 4,825 | Lake Placid FL | 2,599 | $47K | 23.8% | 8.1% | 15% | D− |
| 4,826 | Morgan GA | 1,818 | $46K | 20.6% | 29.6% | 5% | D− |
| 4,827 | Alma GA | 3,400 | $37K | 26.2% | 1.5% | 32% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,083 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Placid, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
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 Placid: questions
What is the median household income in Lake Placid?
$47,018 (±$11,553) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lake Placid?
23.8%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lake Placid?
27 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lake Placid work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sebring (7%, 13 mi), Port St. Lucie (2%, 60 mi), Winter Haven (1%, 56 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lake Placid walkable?
Lake Placid is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 9.6 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lake Placid without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lake Placid, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lake Placid
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.