{"id":46653,"date":"2024-06-15T20:20:27","date_gmt":"2024-06-16T00:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=46653"},"modified":"2024-06-15T20:20:34","modified_gmt":"2024-06-16T00:20:34","slug":"polk-county-ranks-among-floridas-most-populous-counties-but-low-per-capita-income-of-30262","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/06\/15\/polk-county-ranks-among-floridas-most-populous-counties-but-low-per-capita-income-of-30262\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County ranks among Florida&#8217;s most populous counties, but low per capita income of $30,262"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polkcountyclerk.net\/\">Polk County<\/a>&nbsp;continues to be positioned as one of Florida&#8217;s most populous counties, ranking 9th out of the state&#8217;s 67 counties, according to the United States Census Bureau data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Population Growth Outpacing State?<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"538\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Final-4th-Fastest-Growing-County-Infographic-1024x538-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-46654\" style=\"width:455px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Final-4th-Fastest-Growing-County-Infographic-1024x538-1.png 1024w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Final-4th-Fastest-Growing-County-Infographic-1024x538-1-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Final-4th-Fastest-Growing-County-Infographic-1024x538-1-768x404.png 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/quickfacts\/fact\/table\/polkcountyflorida,FL\/INC910222#INC910222\">Data revealed<\/a>&nbsp;that the county&#8217;s population grew to 818,330 as of July 1, 2023, marking a 12.9% increase from the 725,046 residents recorded in the 2020 Census. Interestingly, this growth has outpaced the Florida state&#8217;s overall population increase of 5.0% recorded during the same period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Demographically, Polk County&#8217;s racial and ethnic makeup is diverse, with White residents comprising the largest group at 54.4%, followed by Hispanics at 26.2% and Black residents at 14.4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Economic Indicators: Income and Poverty<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite its sizeable population, Polk County&#8217;s economic indicators present a mixed picture. In 2022, the county&#8217;s median household income stood at $60,901, a 10.5% year-over-year increase, according to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/datausa.io\/profile\/geo\/polk-county-fl\">Data USA<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While this figure surpassed the median household incomes of counties like Hernando ($59,202) and Franklin ($58,107), it fell short of the statewide median of $67,917.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Furthermore, the county&#8217;s per capita income of $30,262 for the period 2018-2022 lagged behind Florida&#8217;s $38,850 during the same timeframe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Notably, 15.7% of Polk County families live below the poverty line, a higher percentage than the state&#8217;s 12.7%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Age Demographics<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The median age of residents in Polk County is 39.8 years, indicating a relatively young population compared to other counties in Florida.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/quickfacts\/fact\/table\/browardcountyflorida,polkcountyflorida,FL\/INC910222\">Research indicates<\/a>&nbsp;that 50.8% of the county&#8217;s population are female, mirroring the state average, while 18.1% are persons 65 years and older.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Polk County&nbsp;continues to be positioned as one of Florida&#8217;s most populous counties, ranking 9th out of the state&#8217;s 67 counties, according to the United States Census Bureau data. Population Growth&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46654,"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":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46653","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=46653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46655,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46653\/revisions\/46655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}