{"id":32817,"date":"2023-06-14T21:18:21","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T01:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=32817"},"modified":"2023-06-14T21:18:25","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T01:18:25","slug":"polk-county-named-the-fastest-growing-county-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/06\/14\/polk-county-named-the-fastest-growing-county-in-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County named the fastest-growing county in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A study from the United Community Needs Assessment found that Polk County is the fastest-growing county in Florida as of the 2020 census.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 310px) 100vw, 310px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/download-1-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32819\" width=\"590\" height=\"310\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/download-1-2.jpg 310w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/download-1-2-300x158.jpg 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The UCNA said it looked at the needs and assets that impact the lives of Polk County residents in six areas: economic and employment opportunities, housing, education, food security, transportation\/infrastructure, and quality of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Between 2010 and 2020, the UNCA said the population in Polk County grew by 20.4 percent, making it the seventh fast-growing in the nation. The county\u2019s population is expected to grow by more than 20 percent by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The study also found that the rising cost of living in the county has forced more than half of the households below the Federal Poverty Level and ALICE thresholds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe number of families not earning enough to meet basic needs is cause for concern,\u201d the UCNA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Polk County, the UCNA said 30 percent of residents qualify as \u201chousing cost-burdened,\u201d which means they are paying more than 30% of their monthly income on rent or mortgage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"461\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Welcome-To-Polk-County-FL-72440-960x4000-0.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32820\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Welcome-To-Polk-County-FL-72440-960x4000-0.jpg 700w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Welcome-To-Polk-County-FL-72440-960x4000-0-300x198.jpg 300w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Polk County FL Boundary Sign<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The study said residents in the area believe a lack of affordable housing, combined with an influx of new residents and investors has driven up home and rental costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOne way to alleviate the housing cost burden is to increase wages,\u201d the UNCA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Take a look at the county\u2019s report below.<\/p>\n\n\n        <div id=\"ep-gutenberg-content-f1748ff6190d6f12bc328f3d5f0f4d42\" class=\"ep-gutenberg-content aligncenter ep-percentage-width   ep-content-protection-disabled\" data-embed-type=\"PDF\" data-embed-url=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/UCNA-Polk-Snapshot-Digital.pdf\">\n            <div class=\"embedpress-inner-iframe emebedpress-unit-percent ep-doc-f1748ff6190d6f12bc328f3d5f0f4d42\" style=\"max-width:600%\" id=\"embedpress-pdf-1686791657441\">\n                <div >\n                    <div class=\"ep-embed-content-wraper\"><div class=\"position-right-wraper gutenberg-pdf-wraper\"><iframe title=\"UCNA-Polk-Snapshot-Digital\" class=\"embedpress-embed-document-pdf embedpress-pdf-1686791657441\" style=\"width:600%;height:600px; max-width:100%; display: inline-block\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/embedpress\/assets\/pdf\/web\/viewer.html?&#038;file=https%3A%2F%2Flakelandgazette.info%2Fnews%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2023%2F06%2FUCNA-Polk-Snapshot-Digital.pdf#key=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\" frameborder=\"0\" oncontextmenu=\"return false;\"><\/iframe> <\/div><\/div>                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To see the full report,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.givecf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/United-Community-Needs-Assessment-Full-Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">visit UNCA\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A study from the United Community Needs Assessment found that Polk County is the fastest-growing county in Florida as of the 2020 census. The UCNA said it looked at the&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[5223],"class_list":["post-32817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-polk-county-named-the-fastest-growing-county-in-florida"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32821,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32817\/revisions\/32821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}