Photo: Averette · CC BY 3.0Households in Lake Wales earn less than those in 79% of U.S. towns
About one in seven stay in Lake Wales for work; outside it, Bartow is the main destination (8%, 14 miles). Poverty touches 22.4% of residents (Florida 12.6%). The two grades for Lake Wales are C− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Lake Wales and work: the main findings
Lake Wales trades workers with the towns around it
Lake Wales has about as many jobs (7,332) as working residents (7,270), but they are mostly different people: 6,311 residents leave for work each day while 6,373 people come in. Only 13% of the jobs in Lake Wales are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Lake Wales draws workers from far and wide
The 7,332 jobs in Lake Wales are filled from a wide area. Lake Wales’ own residents hold 13% and the ten next-biggest home towns 17%; the other 70% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
No single place dominates Lake Wales’ commute
The biggest draw, Bartow, gets only 8% of working residents, and 54% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Lake Wales residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Lake Wales
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Lake Wales is better than 18% of U.S. towns, #581 of 638 in Florida. Job access by car holds Lake Wales’ grade up (ahead of 49% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lake Wales could be anywhere from D to C+.
Who commutes out of Lake Wales, and who commutes in
On a workday 6,311 residents head out to work, 959 work right here, and 6,373 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.01 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
The towns that employ Lake Wales’ residents
Where Lake Wales clocks in
8% of workers
7% of workers
6% 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.
The 7,332 jobs based in Lake Wales
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lake Wales, 2014 → 2024: 6,570 → 7,332. 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 Lake Wales’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Lake Wales takes about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lake Wales workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,213 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.
How far it is to work from Lake Wales
About 28% 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 Lake Wales walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lake Wales is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns, #493 of 638 in Florida. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.8% 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 5,710 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 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). 9.9% of Lake Wales households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Lake Wales’ commuters take a bus or train.
Lake Wales and other U.S. towns of 13,000 to 25,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 68 | Pinecrest FL | 18,635 | $206K | 4.3% | 3.0% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 90 | Lake Butler FL | 17,125 | $183K | 3.7% | 2.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 119 | Palm Valley FL | 19,796 | $117K | 4.2% | 1.2% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,747 | Big Spring TX | 22,290 | $68K | 17.1% | 6.6% | 30% | C− |
| 1,748 | Sedalia MO | 22,621 | $51K | 19.4% | 5.2% | 40% | C− |
| 1,749 | Lake Wales FL | 18,650 | $56K | 22.4% | 5.9% | 13% | C− |
| 1,750 | Plattsburgh NY | 19,744 | $58K | 22.7% | 5.9% | 37% | C− |
| 1,751 | Roseburg OR | 23,693 | $54K | 22.4% | 4.7% | 47% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,915 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 28% | 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 Wales, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
Work in the towns next to Lake Wales
The biggest share goes to Winter Haven (7%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lake Wales workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Wales | – | C− | C+ | 24 min | $56,347 |
| Waverly | under 1% | — | — | — | — |
| Dundee | under 1% | C | C+ | 35 min | $48,668 |
| Winter Haven | 7% | C | B | 28 min | $59,648 |
| Highland Park | under 1% | — | — | 26 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Waverly and Highland Park: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Lake Wales’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 Lake Wales: questions
What is the median household income in Lake Wales?
$56,347 (±$7,706) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lake Wales?
22.4%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lake Wales?
24 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 Wales work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bartow (8%, 14 mi), Winter Haven (7%, 12 mi), Lakeland (6%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Lake Wales walkable?
Lake Wales is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lake Wales without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lake Wales, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lake Wales
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.