Photo: Mjrmtg · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Lakeland are among the lowest of any U.S. town
Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. Below the poverty line: 44.1% of residents, where Georgia as a whole has 13.4%. Lakeland grades D− for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Lakeland: the figures worth knowing
Commutes from Lakeland are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 28 across Georgia. That’s about 77 hours a year less on the road than the typical Georgia worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer than half of Lakeland workers earn over $40,000 a year
39% of Lakeland’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 19% 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 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 861 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Lakeland
On income, poverty and job access, Lakeland is better than 3% of U.S. towns, #253 of 263 in Georgia. Job access by car holds Lakeland’s grade up (ahead of 27% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (0.8%) is left out: Lakeland’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Lakeland stays D−.
About 18 minutes each way for Lakeland’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lakeland workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 888 commuters (the 10% who work from home are left out). Across Georgia: 84% 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.
What the 968 jobs in Lakeland are
968 jobs are based in Lakeland.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lakeland, 2014 → 2024: 979 → 968. 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 Lakeland’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Lakeland, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 692 residents head out to work, 169 work right here, and 799 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 2024, primary jobs.
22% of working residents work in Valdosta
Where Lakeland clocks in
22% of workers
3% of workers
3% 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.
How far it is to work from Lakeland
About 26% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Lakeland
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lakeland is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns, #37 of 263 in Georgia. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 24.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Georgia, on an EPA index of 7.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 982 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). 14.9% of Lakeland households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lakeland’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Lakeland compares with U.S. towns of 2,100 to 4,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Avondale Estates GA | 3,543 | $124K | 6.3% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 259 | Ball Ground GA | 3,470 | $118K | 1.8% | 1.8% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 336 | Chattahoochee Hills GA | 3,524 | $112K | 1.1% | 3.8% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,630 | Clinton AR | 2,511 | $43K | 20.0% | 0.0% | 26% | D− |
| 4,631 | Claxton GA | 2,560 | $33K | 35.7% | 3.0% | 10% | D− |
| 4,632 | Lakeland GA | 3,062 | $31K | 44.1% | 0.8% | 20% | D− |
| 4,633 | Pelham GA | 3,359 | $39K | 22.9% | 10.5% | 14% | D− |
| 4,634 | Mullins SC | 3,838 | $35K | 38.3% | 10.1% | 10% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,771 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 19% | 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 Lakeland, the top three, the last and three more from Georgia.
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 Lakeland: questions
What is the median household income in Lakeland?
$31,147 (±$5,178) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lakeland?
44.1%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lakeland?
18 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lakeland work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Valdosta (22%, 18 mi), Nashville (3%, 15 mi), Tifton (3%, 39 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Lakeland walkable?
Lakeland is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 24% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lakeland without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 15% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lakeland, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lakeland
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.