33812Highland City, Florida

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 33812.

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
OpportunityTop 47% of 6,210 published ZIP areas56
Housing affordabilityTop 42% of 6,685 published ZIP areas85
ClimateTop 19% of 6,789 published ZIP areas79
Physical resilience5772nd of 6,709 published ZIP areas20
AccessTop 2% of 6,791 published ZIP areas100
Economic stabilityTop 17% of 6,742 published ZIP areas77
The quick read

Unemployment is 5.7% and median household income $103,052, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

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

A major airport is 8 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
16,169
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$103,052
Top 17% nationally
Density
1,672/sq mi
9.7 sq mi of land
Median age
40.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Highland City
Florida
Metro area
Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL
Nearest major airport
LAL
8 mi · Lakeland Linder Intl
Median home value
$373,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.7% is lower than 12% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 0.4% over the past year, to 344,014 employed residents.

35% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 73% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,707$103,052Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$5,403$44,127Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate4.8%Bottom 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute31.8 minTop 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher34.8%Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment344,014Top 16%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.9%Top 38%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.4%Top 21%June 2026
Labor force364,829Top 15%June 2026
Labor force participation68.8%Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$57,070Bottom 10%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$46,140Bottom 12%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.8%Top 15%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.7%Top 12%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024103k88k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $103,052 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 — Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Stockers and Order Fillers9,400$39,690
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand8,440$42,800
Retail Salespersons8,220$31,820
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers7,820$57,090
Fast Food and Counter Workers7,380$28,050
Registered Nurses6,140$84,030

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 does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Highland City, FL, the city containing this ZIP code.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,834 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.6 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
21.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,834
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$373,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.63Top 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate79.1%Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3725,783Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$452$1,834Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$16,318$373,700Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.4%Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.9%Bottom 37%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 →

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 93°F and January a low of 52°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 46.1 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 39, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station WINTER HAVEN GILBERT AP, 10.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index58.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation46.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low52°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high93°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index39.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing22°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
39
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
58
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
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

20 / 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
LandslideModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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.

Polk County records 2.8 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 10.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 14.4 per 100,000 residents in Polk County.

Homicide
2.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
14.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
13.7
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 Polk 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 33812 rather than 33812 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 8 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Lakeland Linder IntlLAL8 mi8,500 ft
Tampa IntlTPA39 mi11,002 ft
Orlando IntlMCO48 mi10,000 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.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

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)
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
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.

33812 vs Highland City

How this ZIP area compares with Highland City as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

33812
Highland City
Median household income
$103,052
vs
$90,947
Per capita income
$44,127
vs
$40,407
Population density
1,672/sq mi
vs
1,684/sq mi
Median home value
$373,700
vs
$347,100
Median gross rent
$1,834
vs
$1,993
Homeownership rate
79.1%
vs
79.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher
34.8%
vs
33.1%
Poverty rate
4.8%
vs
5.9%
Median age
40.2
vs
39.2

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.