Photo: Connor J. Williams · CC BY 3.0Households in Winter Haven have lower incomes than those in 75% of U.S. towns
About one in seven stay in Winter Haven for work; outside it, Lakeland is the main destination (10%, 14 miles). Poverty touches 16.4% of residents, against 12.6% across Florida. Winter Haven grades C for jobs and income and B for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Winter Haven apart on work
Winter Haven trades workers with the towns around it
Winter Haven has about as many jobs (26,710) as working residents (23,831), but they are mostly different people: 20,656 residents leave for work each day while 23,535 people come in. Only 12% of the jobs in Winter Haven are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Winter Haven draws workers from far and wide
The 26,710 jobs in Winter Haven are filled from a wide area. Winter Haven’s own residents hold 12% and the ten next-biggest home towns 19%; the other 69% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
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.
Winter Haven’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Winter Haven is better than 31% of U.S. towns, #494 of 638 in Florida. Job access by car holds Winter Haven’s grade up (ahead of 62% 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, Winter Haven could be anywhere from C− to B−.
Who leaves Winter Haven for work, and who comes in
On a workday 20,656 residents head out to work, 3,175 work right here, and 23,535 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 (1.12 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Commuting out of Winter Haven: the destinations
Where Winter Haven clocks in
10% of workers
7% 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.
Jobs in Winter Haven: what the 26,710 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Winter Haven, 2013 → 2023: 24,096 → 26,710. 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 Winter Haven’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Winter Haven: about 28 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Winter Haven workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 21,780 commuters (the 10% 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.
The distance from Winter Haven to work
About 21% 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.
For most of Winter Haven, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Winter Haven is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns, #368 of 638 in Florida. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.8% 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 24,121 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 23% 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 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 47% 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). 8.0% of Winter Haven households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Winter Haven’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Winter Haven is 610th among 704 U.S. towns of 44,000 to 84,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 91 | Weston FL | 69,588 | $140K | 6.1% | 3.9% | 13% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 127 | Horizon West FL | 67,416 | $127K | 7.3% | 2.9% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 161 | Coral Gables FL | 49,578 | $134K | 9.4% | 3.6% | 18% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 608 | Stillwater OK | 50,046 | $44K | 27.4% | 6.4% | 48% | C |
| 609 | Hanford CA | 62,229 | $76K | 14.5% | 9.5% | 26% | C |
| 610 | Winter Haven FL | 62,313 | $60K | 16.4% | 5.1% | 13% | C |
| 611 | New Britain CT | 76,286 | $59K | 18.1% | 7.9% | 15% | C |
| 612 | Sierra Vista AZ | 44,907 | $70K | 12.0% | 4.8% | 42% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 704 | Pahrump NV | 47,347 | $62K | 13.7% | 8.5% | 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 Winter Haven, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
Around Winter Haven: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Auburndale (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Winter Haven workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Haven | – | C | B | 28 min | $59,648 |
| Cypress Gardens | under 2% | B+ | C− | 30 min | $75,483 |
| Inwood | under 2% | C− | B− | 39 min | $55,540 |
| Lake Alfred | under 2% | C+ | A− | 32 min | $67,202 |
| Alturas | under 2% | C+ | C− | 30 min | $70,231 |
| Lake Wales | 2% | C− | C+ | 24 min | $56,347 |
| Dundee | under 2% | C | C+ | 35 min | $48,668 |
| Auburndale | 3% | B | C+ | 33 min | $77,911 |
| Jan Phyl Village | under 2% | C− | B | 29 min | $53,571 |
| Eagle Lake | under 2% | C+ | C− | 31 min | $70,523 |
| Wahneta | under 2% | D | D | 35 min | $46,598 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Winter Haven’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 Winter Haven: questions
What is the median household income in Winter Haven?
$59,648 (±$3,654) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Winter Haven?
16.4%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Winter Haven?
28 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Winter Haven work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lakeland (10%, 14 mi), Bartow (7%, 12 mi), Orlando (5%, 39 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Winter Haven walkable?
Winter Haven is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Winter Haven without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Winter Haven, from the people who make the trip.
More of Winter Haven
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.