Avon Park, Florida

Area Profile

10,057 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Avon Park, in Highlands County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3809th of 3,904 published cities23
Schools2046th of 2,668 published cities31
Housing affordability3303rd of 4,223 published cities61
ClimateTop 17% of 4,223 published cities80
Physical resilience3808th of 4,182 published cities13
Access3311th of 4,226 published cities80
Economic stability4150th of 4,226 published cities20
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 6.6% and the Opportunity signal places Avon Park in the bottom 2%.

In the public schools here, 48% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 17.0 students for every teacher.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane, strong wind and tornado.

At a glance

Population
10,057
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$36,485
Bottom 8% nationally
Density
987/sq mi
10.2 sq mi of land
Median age
49.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Highlands County
Florida
Metro area
Sebring, FL
Nearest major airport
LAL
42 mi · Lakeland Linder Intl
Median home value
$144,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 6.6% is lower than 4% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.3% over the past year, to 34,508 employed residents.

Median household income of $36,485 is below 92% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,055$36,485Bottom 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,399$23,787Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate23.3%Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.7 minBottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher10.7%Bottom 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment34,508Bottom 41%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.6%Bottom 24%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.3%Top 35%June 2026
Labor force36,935Bottom 42%June 2026
Labor force participation44.3%Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$52,880Bottom 2%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$40,400Bottom 2%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)1.0%Top 5%June 2026
Unemployment rate6.6%Top 4%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202437k33k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $36,485 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Sebring, FL
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons1,150$31,200
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,120$27,790
Registered Nurses930$85,690
Cashiers810$28,020
Office Clerks, General690$39,340
Stockers and Order Fillers610$31,920

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Highlands County, FL, which contains this city.

48% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 42% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.0 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
48.3%
Bottom 37% in Florida
Reading proficiency
42.3%
Bottom 20% in Florida
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
AVON PARK HIGH SCHOOLHIGHLANDS98019.2
AVON PARK MIDDLE SCHOOLHIGHLANDS60016.737%37%
PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOLHIGHLANDS55716.963%49%
AVON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLHIGHLANDS50314.451%45%
MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLHIGHLANDS46616.642%39%

68.1% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Florida’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $921 takes 30% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.0 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
30.3%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$921
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$144,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.97Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate58.7%Bottom 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3875,579Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$111$921Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$29,856$144,700Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income30.3%Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate15.4%Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →

Population has grown 8% since 2020, reaching 10,415 in 2024.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202410k10k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

8 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 92°F and January a low of 49°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 52.7 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 35, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station AVON PARK 2 W, 1.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND9.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index50.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation52.7"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low49°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high92°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index35.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing22°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
35
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
50
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

13 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, strong wind and tornado.

Strong windHigh
HurricaneElevated
WildfireModerate
TornadoModerate
Cold waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, inland flooding, heat wave, drought, hail, landslide, earthquake.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Highlands County records 3.7 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 27.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 17.7 per 100,000 residents in Highlands County.

Homicide
3.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
27.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
17.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
31.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Highlands County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Avon Park rather than Avon Park itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

8 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 42 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Lakeland Linder IntlLAL42 mi8,500 ft
Orlando IntlMCO59 mi10,000 ft
Melbourne Orlando IntlMLB63 mi10,181 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Other cities in Sebring, FL

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
SebringHighlands County11,38242vs Avon Park

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Compare

Put Avon Park side by side with a similar place.

Avon Park vs SebringAvon Park vs BogalusaAvon Park vs PalatkaAvon Park vs Prichard

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

ZIP codes in Avon Park

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
3382525,501$46,949