With Lakeland named one of the top moving destinations in the U.S. at the beginning of 2019, we were curious about our city’s future. How fast is Lakeland growing, and how many people are moving to our city?

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 22,000+ people moved to the Lakeland-Winter Haven metropolitan area from July 1, 2017 to July 1, 2018. That’s enough to fill George Jenkins Arena at the RP Funding Center, Joker Marchant Stadium, and Thomas Bryant Stadium.

This 3.2% annual population increase (from 685,830 to 708,009) earned us the fourth spot on U.S. Census Bureau’s ‘Top 10 Metropolitan Areas in Percentage Growth’ list (see table 8) – right behind Midland, TX; Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, N.C.-S.C.; and St. George, UT.

The Office | Image via giphy

With an increase in population, comes the need for housing – the construction of new single-family homes, specifically. Lakeland has issued 400+ permits to build new homes (in the July 2017-2018 time span). That’s more than double the city’s historic average.

Looking further ahead, the 2030: Insight into Orlando’s Future report projects that Central Florida will have ~1,500 people per week move to the region, boosting the population of Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Lake, Brevard, Volusia, and Polk Counties up from 4.3 million to 5.2 million residents in the next 11 years. In Polk County specifically, the population will increase by 24.2% by 2030.

That same report also estimates that industry employment will grow by 19% – 10% faster than the U.S. average. The fastest growing industry in Orlando will likely be home and healthcare services (a 64% increase in employment), adding 44,000+ jobs to that field.

Poll

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– LALtoday team (Jessica + Kaylee)