Bartow vs Lakeland Highlands

A side-by-side comparison of Bartow and Lakeland Highlands: population, income, housing, and more.

Bartow and Lakeland Highlands 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 11,669 in Lakeland Highlands). Lakeland Highlands has the higher median household income ($106,012 vs $66,944 in Bartow). Lakeland Highlands has the higher median home value ($352,000 vs $210,400 in Bartow).

Population, income & housing

	Bartow	Lakeland Highlands
Population	19,801	11,669
Median age	36.1 yrs	46.0 yrs
Median household income	$66,944	$106,012
Median home value	$210,400	$352,000
Median gross rent	$1,073	$1,817
Housing units	7,635	4,630
Homeownership rate	66.4%	81.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	22.3%	42.7%
Unemployment rate	3.7%	2.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bartow	Lakeland Highlands
Population	19,440 → 19,801 (+1.9%)	12,332 → 11,669 (-5.4%)
Median household income	$47,779 → $66,944 (+40.1%)	$92,955 → $106,012 (+14.0%)
Median home value	$137,100 → $210,400 (+53.5%)	$262,900 → $352,000 (+33.9%)
Median gross rent	$841 → $1,073 (+27.6%)	$1,570 → $1,817 (+15.7%)

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

Lakeland Highlands

Population

12,33211,669

Median household income

$92,955$106,012

Median home value

$262,900$352,000

Median gross rent

$1,570$1,817

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bartow	Lakeland Highlands
Under 5	6.3%	3.2%
5 to 17	14.6%	20.4%
18 to 24	9.6%	6.8%
25 to 34	17.7%	7.3%
35 to 44	12.3%	10.4%
45 to 54	11.9%	15.2%
55 to 64	11.3%	16.2%
65 to 74	9.1%	13.2%
75 and over	7.3%	7.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bartow	Lakeland Highlands
White (non-Hispanic)	55.3%	77.0%
Black or African American	22.3%	3.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.4%
Asian	2.8%	2.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.3%
Two or more races	3.3%	1.8%
Hispanic or Latino	16.0%	15.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bartow	Lakeland Highlands
No high school diploma	9.8%	4.4%
High school graduate	35.2%	22.8%
Some college or associate's	32.7%	30.1%
Bachelor's degree	15.7%	24.4%
Graduate or professional degree	6.6%	18.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bartow	Lakeland Highlands
Drove alone	79.9%	74.7%
Carpooled	8.8%	10.1%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	1.5%	1.0%
Bicycle	1.1%	0.4%
Worked from home	7.6%	13.3%
Other means	1.0%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bartow	Lakeland Highlands
1-unit, detached	73.6%	79.8%
1-unit, attached	0.3%	5.5%
2 to 4 units	10.2%	1.0%
5 to 19 units	4.6%	0.4%
20 or more units	5.0%	5.4%
Mobile home & other	6.3%	7.9%

Poverty & households

	Bartow	Lakeland Highlands
Poverty rate	16.5%	3.7%
Average household size	2.70	2.63
Mean commute (minutes)	25	24
Median year structure built	1976	1986