Highlands ZIP codes — Highlands County, Florida

Highlands County is a mid-size city in Florida, with 103,808 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates. The median age here is 54.2 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. At this size the Census also publishes one-year estimates; the five-year values used here are steadier and let you compare against smaller neighbours on the same basis.

Households in Highlands County earn a median of $55,581 a year, 29.2% below the national figure of $78,538. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 15.4% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Highlands County is valued at $177,900, 41.4% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $980 a month, 30.3% below the national figure, or roughly $11,760 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 21.2% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3.2×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 78.9% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

A median age of 54.2 puts Highlands County well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.