Winter Garden, Florida

Area Profile

47,872 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Winter Garden, in Orange County.

67out of 100
Area Score
Top 29% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 29% of 3,904 published cities66
GrowthTop 29% of 2,973 published cities62
Housing affordability2556th of 4,223 published cities74
ClimateTop 17% of 4,223 published cities80
Physical resilience2553rd of 4,182 published cities47
AccessTop 42% of 4,226 published cities94
Economic stabilityTop 41% of 4,226 published cities64
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.1% and median household income $106,495, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

Rent takes 22% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.5 times that income.

A major airport is 19 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
47,872
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$106,495
Top 16% nationally
Density
2,921/sq mi
16.4 sq mi of land
Median age
40.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Orange County
Florida
Metro area
Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL
Nearest major airport
MCO
19 mi · Orlando Intl
Median home value
$476,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.1% is lower than 59% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 0.4% over the past year, to 24,350 employed residents.

46% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 86% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$7,925$106,495Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,916$46,282Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.9%Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute29.4 minTop 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher46.1%Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment24,350Bottom 31%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.8%Bottom 22%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.4%Top 22%June 2026
Labor force25,404Bottom 31%June 2026
Labor force participation69.3%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$61,890Bottom 21%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$46,630Bottom 12%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.6%Top 25%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.1%Bottom 41%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.32.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.1% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024106k90k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $106,495 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 — Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons49,970$32,290
Waiters and Waitresses36,820$35,410
Customer Service Representatives35,690$40,530
Fast Food and Counter Workers34,830$28,620
Registered Nurses30,150$83,550
Cashiers29,340$31,330

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.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,963 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
22.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,963
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$476,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.47Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate65.7%Bottom 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±68317,326Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$217$1,963Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$19,983$476,000Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.1%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.8%Bottom 41%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 →
Development Momentum
62/ 100
Top 29% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 3% since 2020, reaching 48,771 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 8% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 2.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
127
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.7
Top 46% nationally
Year over year
+95%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
7.9%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202449k47k
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.
Housing units permitted per year
2020202220232024202524325
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−68%).

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 52°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 51.5 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 41, in the Good band, and about 2 days a year pass 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 ORLANDO EXECUTIVE AP, 16.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND8.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index58.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation51.5"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low52°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high92°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10022024 calendar year
Median air quality index41.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing22°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
41
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
58
90th percentile index
Days above 100
2
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

47 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Strong windHigh
TornadoModerate
HurricaneElevated
WildfireModerate
Cold waveModerate
HailModerate

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

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.

Orange County records 3.6 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 8.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.6 per 100,000 residents in Orange County.

Homicide
3.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
8.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
10.2
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 Orange 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 Winter Garden rather than Winter Garden 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 19 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Orlando IntlMCO19 mi10,000 ft
Orlando Sanford IntlSFB27 mi11,002 ft
Lakeland Linder IntlLAL46 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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Area Score
67
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Other cities in Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
OrlandoOrange County319,75859vs Winter Garden
AlafayaOrange County92,449vs Winter Garden
KissimmeeOsceola County81,47947vs Winter Garden
Pine HillsOrange County80,105vs Winter Garden
PoincianaOsceola County75,068vs Winter Garden
Horizon WestOrange County67,416vs Winter Garden
St. CloudOsceola County65,13059vs Winter Garden
Four CornersOsceola County65,048vs Winter Garden
SanfordSeminole County63,73059vs Winter Garden
ApopkaOrange County58,23264vs Winter Garden
OcoeeOrange County49,03362vs Winter Garden
ClermontLake County46,85365vs Winter Garden

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)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
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.