Bartow vs Lake Wales

A side-by-side comparison of Bartow and Lake Wales: population, income, housing, and more.

Bartow and Lake Wales are places in Florida. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Bartow has the higher population (19,801 vs 16,365 in Lake Wales). Bartow has the higher median household income ($66,944 vs $55,799 in Lake Wales). Lake Wales has the higher median home value ($225,900 vs $210,400 in Bartow).

Population, income & housing

	Bartow	Lake Wales
Population	19,801	16,365
Median age	36.1 yrs	41.1 yrs
Median household income	$66,944	$55,799
Median home value	$210,400	$225,900
Median gross rent	$1,073	$1,060
Housing units	7,635	7,961
Homeownership rate	66.4%	61.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	22.3%	22.0%
Unemployment rate	3.7%	6.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bartow	Lake Wales
Population	19,440 → 19,801 (+1.9%)	16,035 → 16,365 (+2.1%)
Median household income	$47,779 → $66,944 (+40.1%)	$44,186 → $55,799 (+26.3%)
Median home value	$137,100 → $210,400 (+53.5%)	$167,400 → $225,900 (+34.9%)
Median gross rent	$841 → $1,073 (+27.6%)	$821 → $1,060 (+29.1%)

Bartow

Population

19,44019,801

Median household income

$47,779$66,944

Median home value

$137,100$210,400

Median gross rent

$841$1,073

Lake Wales

Population

16,03516,365

Median household income

$44,186$55,799

Median home value

$167,400$225,900

Median gross rent

$821$1,060

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bartow	Lake Wales
Under 5	6.3%	5.9%
5 to 17	14.6%	14.8%
18 to 24	9.6%	6.5%
25 to 34	17.7%	12.5%
35 to 44	12.3%	12.5%
45 to 54	11.9%	8.2%
55 to 64	11.3%	12.5%
65 to 74	9.1%	14.9%
75 and over	7.3%	12.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bartow	Lake Wales
White (non-Hispanic)	55.3%	47.6%
Black or African American	22.3%	19.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.3%
Asian	2.8%	0.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.2%
Two or more races	3.3%	1.4%
Hispanic or Latino	16.0%	30.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bartow	Lake Wales
No high school diploma	9.8%	12.5%
High school graduate	35.2%	32.8%
Some college or associate's	32.7%	32.7%
Bachelor's degree	15.7%	14.4%
Graduate or professional degree	6.6%	7.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bartow	Lake Wales
Drove alone	79.9%	79.3%
Carpooled	8.8%	11.2%
Public transit	0.0%	0.1%
Walked	1.5%	0.3%
Bicycle	1.1%	0.0%
Worked from home	7.6%	6.5%
Other means	1.0%	2.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bartow	Lake Wales
1-unit, detached	73.6%	65.5%
1-unit, attached	0.3%	1.7%
2 to 4 units	10.2%	13.4%
5 to 19 units	4.6%	9.7%
20 or more units	5.0%	4.1%
Mobile home & other	6.3%	5.7%

Poverty & households

	Bartow	Lake Wales
Poverty rate	16.5%	24.4%
Average household size	2.70	2.44
Mean commute (minutes)	25	26
Median year structure built	1976	1992