Central Florida's fastest income growth this decade comes from Lake County, not Orange
Lake County's per-capita income rose 27.9% since the decade began, edging past Orange County's 27.4%.
The Central Florida county where income per resident has grown fastest since 2020 isn't Orange County. It's Lake County.
Even Lake couldn't keep up with the rest of Florida.
Per-capita personal income in Lake County rose 27.9% from 2020 to 2024, before accounting for inflation, according to the latest county estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Orange County was close behind at 27.4%.
Farther back, Seminole County grew 24.5% and Osceola County 23.5%. That split runs through the middle of the region, with Lake and Orange on top and their neighbors to the north and south trailing.
The state set the pace. Florida's per-capita income rose 29% over the same years, so Lake fell short by 1.1 percentage points and Orange by 1.6 percentage points. Seminole and Osceola lagged by more.
Measured against the nation, the picture brightens. U.S. per-capita income grew 23.8%, and Lake beat that by 4.2 percentage points. Orange and Seminole also finished ahead of the national rate. Osceola was the only Central Florida county that didn't.
Where Central Florida lands among its rivals
Line the region up against Florida, the U.S. and the big counties at the center of comparable Sun Belt metros, and Lake comes in third. Orange ranks fifth, Seminole ninth and Osceola 11th, last on the list.
Closest to home, Lake and Orange both outgrew Hillsborough County, the heart of the Tampa Bay area on the other end of I-4, which rose 26.9%. Orange also edged Clark County, the core of the Las Vegas area, at 27.2%.
Nobody came close to Austin's Travis County, where per-capita income jumped 37.2%. San Antonio's Bexar County landed right beside Lake at 27.8%, and Charlotte's Mecklenburg County grew 25.6%, ahead of Seminole and Osceola.
A faster climb from a lower rung
Growth rates only tell part of it. Per-capita personal income in Orange County was $62,855 in 2024, well below Florida's $73,006.
Orange started behind the state and then grew more slowly. That means the dollar gap between Orange County and Florida as a whole did not close over these years.
Per-capita income is an average, not a paycheck. It divides a county's total personal income by its population, and BEA used Census Bureau population figures to calculate it (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)). A county adding residents quickly needs total income to rise just as quickly for the per-person figure to hold its ground.
Personal income also counts more than wages. In Mecklenburg County, BEA reported that government payments to residents climbed in 2024, driven largely by an increase in Medicare and Medicaid payments and Social Security benefits (apps.bea.gov). On the earnings side there, finance and insurance was the largest contributor to growth (apps.bea.gov).
Why counties, and what comes next
This comparison uses counties rather than the Orlando area as a whole for a reason: BEA has stopped publishing personal income statistics for metropolitan areas (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)). The agency also revised its county estimates for 2020 through 2023 (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)), so these figures may not match ones published earlier.
The next county release is scheduled for Dec. 2, 2026 (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)). It will add 2025, and it will show whether Lake can hold its lead in Central Florida and whether any county in the region can finally keep pace with the state.
About the data
We used the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis's county personal income estimates, released Feb. 5, 2026, to calculate the percent change in per-capita personal income from 2020 to 2024 for Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake counties. We compared those changes with Florida, the U.S. and the central counties of peer metros (Hillsborough, Mecklenburg, Travis, Bexar and Clark), ranking every area by growth.
- The figures are in current dollars and are not adjusted for inflation or local cost of living, so they show income growth, not changes in buying power.
- Per-capita income is an average that includes wages, investment income and government payments, so it does not describe what a typical worker or household earns.
- BEA revises these estimates, and the December 2026 release may change the 2020 to 2024 figures.
Per-capita personal income: a county's total personal income from all sources, including wages, investments and government benefits, divided by its population. Percentage points: the simple difference between percentages, such as one county's growth rate minus the state's.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA): Per capita personal income — 4 areas (BEA CAINC1, line 3), latest period 2024, released Feb. 5, 2026; retrieved Oct. 20, 2026. Data
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA): Per capita personal income — 11 areas (BEA CAINC1, line 3), latest period 2024, released Feb. 5, 2026; retrieved Oct. 20, 2026. Data
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