Photo: formulanone · CC BY-SA 2.0Most of Lehigh Acres commutes out: there are 0.2 jobs for every working resident
There are 10,736 jobs in Lehigh Acres, against 48,611 working residents. For jobs and income Lehigh Acres is better than 34% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (C+). Commuters spend 38 minutes getting to work on average; the Florida average is 28, the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Lehigh Acres
Lehigh Acres workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 38 minutes each way, against 28 across Florida. Over a year that’s about 291 hours of commuting, 77 more than the state’s typical worker. Every town next door averages less (25 to 35 minutes). Time on the road ↓
Lehigh Acres has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Lehigh Acres went from 6,423 in 2013 to 10,736 in 2023, +67%. The jobs ↓
Lehigh Acres makes and builds things
35% of the jobs based in Lehigh Acres are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Lehigh Acres residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 19%. 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
The figures behind Lehigh Acres’ Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Lehigh Acres’ grade up (ahead of 53% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (17.1%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lehigh Acres could be anywhere from C to C+.
A commute of about 38 minutes in Lehigh Acres
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 12.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lehigh Acres workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 52,780 commuters (the 11% 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.
Goods jobs make up 35% of work in Lehigh Acres
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lehigh Acres, 2013 → 2023: 6,423 → 10,736. 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 Lehigh Acres’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily flow of workers through Lehigh Acres
On a workday 44,446 residents head out to work, 4,165 work right here, and 6,571 people come in from elsewhere.
About 94,000 people are in Lehigh Acres on a workday afternoon, 29% 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.
19% of working residents work in Fort Myers
Where Lehigh Acres clocks in
19% of workers
5% 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.
Lehigh Acres’ commute, mile by mile
About 25% 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.
Lehigh Acres is a driving town
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.4% 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 59,562 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 26% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 6% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.8 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 55% 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). 3.8% of Lehigh Acres households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Lehigh Acres’ commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
For jobs and income, Lehigh Acres is 229th of 283 U.S. towns of 93,000 to 179,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carmel IN | 105,634 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 2 | Clay Township IN | 104,932 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 3 | Fishers IN | 104,812 | $130K | 4.0% | 2.8% | 14% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Plantation FL | 99,183 | $93K | 10.0% | 4.0% | 10% | A− |
| 70 | Riverview FL | 113,697 | $100K | 7.5% | 4.3% | 6% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 75 | Miramar FL | 142,570 | $89K | 8.5% | 4.5% | 6% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 227 | Dearborn MI | 105,611 | $65K | 24.3% | 6.6% | 23% | C |
| 228 | Portsmouth VA | 96,777 | $60K | 17.3% | 6.6% | 17% | C |
| 229 | Lehigh Acres FL | 132,353 | $67K | 17.1% | 4.5% | 9% | C |
| 230 | Warren Township IN | 107,778 | $59K | 17.2% | 6.9% | 14% | C |
| 231 | Springfield MO | 169,847 | $49K | 18.4% | 4.3% | 71% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 283 | Macon-Bibb County GA | 157,556 | $51K | 24.7% | 8.1% | 53% | 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 Lehigh Acres, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
19% of Lehigh Acres works in a bordering town
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lehigh Acres workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lehigh Acres | – | C | C+ | 38 min | $66,890 |
| Buckingham | under 2% | A− | C− | 30 min | $112,568 |
| Alva | under 2% | A− | D | 35 min | $85,919 |
| Fort Myers | 19% | 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 Lehigh Acres’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 Lehigh Acres: questions
What is the median household income in Lehigh Acres?
$66,890 (±$2,938) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lehigh Acres?
17.1%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lehigh Acres?
38 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lehigh Acres work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Myers (19%, 12 mi), Cape Coral (5%, 22 mi), Villas (3%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lehigh Acres walkable?
Lehigh Acres is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lehigh Acres without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 6% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lehigh Acres, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lehigh Acres
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.