Work & commute · The Villages

Work & commute in The Villages, FL

Most working residents leave The Villages for work: only 12% work in town. The top destinations are Wildwood (9%), Lady Lake (5%) and Jacksonville (4%). Half commute less than 45 miles.

Census LEHD commute flows, 2023 Census ACS commute times

Work in town

12%

1,721 of 14,722 working residents

Typical commute

45 mi

Half commute less than this, straight-line

Average commute time

21 min

One way, from the Census survey

Work from home

28%

of workers, from the Census survey

Coming and going

Who leaves, who stays, who comes in

On a workday 13,001 The Villages residents head out of town to work, 1,721 work right here, and 9,745 people come in from elsewhere to fill jobs in The Villages.

13,001live here, work elsewhere

1,721live and work here

9,745work here, live elsewhere

Leave for workStayCome in

The map

Where The Villages goes to work

The Villages (in town)right here

12%1,721

Wildwood6.5 mi away

9%1,325

Lady Lake4 mi away

5%707

Jacksonville101.3 mi away

4%539

Ocala21.5 mi away

3%471

Tampa70.7 mi away

3%466

Orlando50.2 mi away

3%416

Leesburg13.7 mi away

2%367

Gainesville57.9 mi away

2%264

Lakeland58.3 mi away

1%180

Everywhere elseother towns and states

56%8,266

Lines run between town centers; a thicker line means more commuters. The top 10 towns each way.

How far

How far The Villages commutes

Straight-line distance from home to work, for every working resident. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.

30%

10%

15%

45%

30%Under 10 mi

10%10–24 mi

15%25–50 mi

45%Over 50 mi

Job hub or commuter town?

The Villages is balanced between jobs and homes

0.78jobs per working resident

Balanced

About as many jobs as working residents (0.78 per resident).

The jobs

What the jobs in The Villages are

11,466 jobs are based in The Villages. Here is what they are, next to the jobs The Villages’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in The Villages

11,466 jobs

Goods (factories, building, farms)1%

Trade, transport & utilities14%

Services (health, schools, offices…)85%

$1,250 a month or less27%

$1,251–$3,333 a month36%

Over $3,333 a month37%

Jobs The Villages residents hold

14,722 working residents

Goods (factories, building, farms)11%

Trade, transport & utilities23%

Services (health, schools, offices…)66%

$1,250 a month or less24%

$1,251–$3,333 a month32%

Over $3,333 a month44%

+32%

Jobs based in The Villages, 2013 → 2023: 8,697 → 11,466. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.

About these numbers

How to read this page

Every worker, home to workThe Census links each worker’s home block to their main job’s block, for jobs covered by unemployment insurance. That’s most jobs, but not the self-employed.

Where the employer saysA job counts where the employer reports it. Some big employers report one address for many sites, which can make a few commutes look longer than they are.

Two surveysFlows, distances and jobs: LEHD 2023. Commute time and working from home: the Census American Community Survey.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs; American Community Survey 5-year estimates.