Wildwood, Florida

Area Profile

17,608 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Wildwood, in Sumter 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
Opportunity2080th of 3,904 published cities55
Schools2152nd of 2,668 published cities27
Housing affordability3411th of 4,223 published cities59
ClimateTop 14% of 4,223 published cities81
Physical resilience3253rd of 4,182 published cities28
Access3470th of 4,226 published cities76
Economic stability4031st of 4,226 published cities27
The quick read

Unemployment is 7.8% and median household income $76,552, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 5.9 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 24% of it.

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

At a glance

Population
17,608
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$76,552
Top 37% nationally
Density
302/sq mi
58.3 sq mi of land
Median age
64.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Sumter County
Florida
Metro area
Wildwood-The Villages, FL
Nearest major airport
SFB
47 mi · Orlando Sanford Intl
Median home value
$451,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 7.8% is lower than 2% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 0.7% over the past year, to 32,714 employed residents.

40% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 81% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$7,841$76,552Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,866$52,830Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.8%Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.5 minBottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher39.9%Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment32,714Bottom 40%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.7%Top 16%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.7%Top 16%June 2026
Labor force35,491Bottom 41%June 2026
Labor force participation36.0%Bottom 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$58,950Bottom 11%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$45,830Bottom 8%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)1.1%Top 3%June 2026
Unemployment rate7.8%Top 2%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202477k59k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $76,552 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 — Wildwood-The Villages, FL
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons1,400$34,290
Waiters and Waitresses1,170$36,340
Cashiers1,160$30,450
Correctional Officers and Jailers980$67,770
Registered Nurses960$77,110
Fast Food and Counter Workers930$28,810

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 Sumter County, FL, which contains this city.

37% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 49% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.8 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
3
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
37.3%
Bottom 16% in Florida
Reading proficiency
49.3%
Bottom 35% in Florida
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
WILDWOOD MIDDLE/ HIGH SCHOOLSUMTER71016.527%47%
WILDWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLSUMTER67816.148%52%
WILDWOOD INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLSUMTER40918.6

49.5% 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 $1,519 takes 24% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.9 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
23.8%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,519
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$451,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.90Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate77.3%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±44511,127Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$314$1,519Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$19,096$451,600Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income23.8%Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate17.1%Top 29%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 19% since 2020, reaching 19,031 in 2024.

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

Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202419k16k
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 91°F and January a low of 49°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 43.8 inches.

40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station LEESBURG MUNI AP, 12.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation43.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low49°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing24°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

Physical risk

28 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneElevated
LightningModerate
WildfireModerate
Strong windElevated
Cold waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: tornado, inland flooding, heat wave, earthquake, landslide, hail, drought, coastal flooding, winter weather.

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.

Sumter County records 1.9 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 15.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 10.6 per 100,000 residents in Sumter County.

Homicide
1.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
15.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
10.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
22.4
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 Sumter 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 Wildwood rather than Wildwood 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

7 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 47 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Orlando Sanford IntlSFB47 mi11,002 ft
Orlando IntlMCO50 mi10,000 ft
Lakeland Linder IntlLAL57 mi8,500 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 Wildwood-The Villages, FL

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
The VillagesSumter County83,498vs Wildwood

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.

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

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 Wildwood

5 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
3216328,549$96,775
3478521,568$66,136
344845,050$92,582
335142,366$80,286
335851,763$83,125