Haines City is a city in Polk County, Florida, home to about 34,234 people across 19 square miles. Its ZIP code is 33844, and parts of 33837 are in Haines City too.
Homes sold for a median of $168 per square foot in the three months ending August 2026, a balanced market.
Mostly Haines City; also Poinciana and Grenelefe
Mostly Davenport; part is in Haines City
Each card is that ZIP code’s whole market, including any part outside Haines City. Seller’s market: under 4 months of supply; buyer’s market: over 6. Methodology
Haines City grew out of the railroad. In 1881 Hamilton Disston bought about four million acres of central and south Florida from the state, and settlers arrived here in 1883 as the South Florida Railroad was built through the area. The stop was first called Clay Cut. In 1885, when the post office opened, it was renamed for Henry S. Haines, a vice president of the railroad; local tradition holds that residents offered the name in exchange for a station. A town plat followed in 1886. The Panic of 1893 and the Great Freeze of 1894 and 1895 stalled growth for years.
After the Atlantic Coast Line absorbed the South Florida Railroad in 1910 and built a new station, citrus drove the local economy and the Florida Citrus Exchange opened a branch office. The town incorporated in 1914. The 1920s land boom brought most of the downtown that stands today, including a Mission-style railroad depot in 1923 and the Mediterranean Revival Polk Hotel, a downtown tower completed in 1926. The boom collapsed after 1925, and hurricanes in 1926 and 1928 and bank failures followed; in the 1930s, federal relief projects paid for sidewalks, streets, parks, an airport and the Haines City Armory.
The Oakland neighborhood developed its own commercial district from the early 1900s into the 1970s, with cafes, groceries, a movie theater and service stations along seven blocks of what is now Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way; a state historical marker went up there in 2022. In the 1970s the Circus World theme park opened near the city, later followed by Boardwalk and Baseball; both closed, and the site is now a commercial center.
Haines City sits on rolling ground dotted with lakes, among them Lake Eva and Lake Tracy. Downtown's historic core is compact: a two-block run of one- to three-story red-brick storefronts on North Sixth and Seventh streets between Hinson and Ingraham avenues, most built between 1921 and 1927, with the former Polk Hotel, now the Palm Crest, rising above them. The city has worked to make downtown more walkable, building Polk County's first complete street and the first phases of a downtown trail system, and adding rain gardens and bioswales to handle stormwater.
The older neighborhoods around downtown are mostly small wood-frame vernacular houses, mixed with bungalows and Colonial, Mediterranean, Classical and Tudor Revival homes from before World War II; two boom-era subdivisions platted in 1925, Avondale and Golf Grounds Estates, saw little building at the time. In the Oakland neighborhood, homes have always been mixed in with the storefronts along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Lake Eva Park, at 555 Ledwith Avenue, puts shade trees, a playground and an aquatic area with water slides close to downtown.
Much of the recent growth has come in large new subdivisions, several of them west of U.S. 27 on the way north to Interstate 4. Projects approved in the early 2020s include Brentwood, a townhome community about a mile and a half south of the I-4 interchange at Posner Center, the single-family Wynnstone and Kalogridis developments, and Crosswinds, planned for close to 3,000 townhomes and single-family houses on former agricultural land. The Southern Dunes Golf Club is also in the area.
U.S. 27 is the city's main north-south road, meeting Interstate 4 about 6 miles north of town. U.S. 17 runs west from Haines City through Lake Alfred to Winter Haven, about 12 miles away. Scenic Highway 17 begins in Haines City and heads south along the Lake Wales Ridge through citrus country, roughly parallel to U.S. 27. By car, downtown Orlando is about 38 miles east and Walt Disney World about 19 miles; most trips are by car.
Citrus Connection, Polk County's transit system, runs several routes out of Haines City: Route 15 to Winter Haven, and express routes 16X to Poinciana, 17X to Lake Wales and 20X to Davenport, plus 18X and 19X from Posner Park to Four Corners and Poinciana. Schedules and real-time locations are on the agency's site.
Orlando International Airport is the nearest major airport, about 45 minutes away by the city's estimate, and Tampa is about an hour's drive. Within the city, downtown's trail system and complete-street redesign are the main walking and biking improvements so far.
Lake Eva Community Park is the city's main gathering place, with its playground and water slides beside the lake. The Lake Eva Event Center on the shore, renovated in the late 2000s, hosts conferences, banquets and receptions, and the park has hosted yearly events such as the Thunder on the Ridge fireworks and the Ribs on the Ridge barbecue competition. The Haines City Community Theatre at 303 Ledwith Avenue stages local and classic productions.
Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek Preserve State Park, at 4335 Firetower Road, protects more than 8,000 acres of scrub, sandhill and flatwoods on the Lake Wales Ridge, home to Florida scrub-jays, gopher tortoises and rare plants such as the pygmy fringe tree. It has hiking and horseback trails, primitive camping and free day use, and is open from 8 a.m. to sunset.
The downtown commercial district, with its 1920s brick storefronts and the old Polk Hotel, is compact enough to see on foot, and the 2022 marker on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way tells the story of the Oakland business district. Scenic Highway 17, starting in town, makes a drive south through citrus groves along the ridge, and the Davenport Historic District, a Florida Heritage site, is less than 5 miles away.
Researched and drafted from the public sources below. Updated October 2026. Spot something wrong or out of date? Tell us.
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Get matched| Nearest major airport | Orlando International Airport (MCO)28 miles away |
|---|---|
| Nearest city of 250,000+ | Orlando, FL30 miles away |
| Nearest city of 1 million+ | Philadelphia, PA901 miles away |
Straight-line distances from the center of Haines City; driving is longer.
Source: Airports from OurAirports (scheduled passenger service); city centers and populations from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Source: Members of Congress from the congress-legislators project; districts from the Census Bureau’s relationship files; governor and mayor from Wikidata.
Haines City had 26,669 residents in the 2020 census, up 102% since 2000.
It’s the 127th largest of 954 towns in Florida by population.
Polk County grew from 12,472 residents in 1900 to 725,046 in 2020.
Polk County, 1900–2020
Source: U.S. Census Bureau decennial censuses (counties 1900–1990 from the Bureau’s historical county file).
Average highs peak around 93°F in summer, and winter lows average 52°F. About 46.1 inches of rain and melted snow fall in a typical year.
Source: NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals, Winter Haven Gilbert Ap, FL weather station (9 miles away).
232,278 jobs at 13,992 businesses in Polk County. The biggest industries by employees:
Source: U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023 (private employers; jobs counted where people work).
139 doctors and other health care providers list an office in Haines City.
Nearest hospitals
Providers with an office here
| Primary care doctors | 23 |
|---|---|
| Specialist doctors | 2 |
| Dentists | 11 |
| Nurse practitioners and physician assistants | 40 |
| Mental health providers | 32 |
| Physical and occupational therapists | 16 |
| Optometrists | 5 |
| Chiropractors | 10 |
| Pharmacies | 14 |
Source: Hospitals from CMS Hospital General Information (ratings are CMS overall star ratings); straight-line distances; providers from the CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES), by practice address and primary specialty.
Parks (7 nearby)
Grocery stores (8 nearby)
Pharmacies (3 nearby)
Libraries (2 nearby)
Museums
Counts are within about 3 miles of the center of town.
Source: Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (openstreetmap.org/copyright), as mapped by volunteers; it can miss places or include closed ones.
Established in 1885.
Notable people born here
Source: Wikidata (wikidata.org), the free knowledge base; people are listed by place of birth.
Public schools here are run by Polk. Check each district’s attendance zones for a specific address.
| School | Grades | Students | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alta Vista Elementary SchoolHaines City | Pre-K–5 | 780 | Public | 2.6 mi |
| Bethune AcademyHaines City | Pre-K–5 | 430 | Public | 0.3 mi |
| Eastside Elementary SchoolHaines City | Pre-K–5 | 725 | Public | 0.6 mi |
| Haines City Headstart CenterHaines City | Pre-K | — | Public | 0.3 mi |
| Sandhill Elementary SchoolHaines City | Pre-K–5 | 1,111 | Public | 6.6 mi |
| Scenic Terrace K-8Haines City | K–8 | — | Public | 3.8 mi |
| Daniel Jenkins Academy of Technology Middle SchoolHaines City | 6–8 | 506 | Public | 1.4 mi |
| Shelley S. Boone Middle SchoolHaines City | 6–8 | 1,329 | Public | 1.5 mi |
| Haines City Senior High SchoolHaines City | 9–12 | 3,105 | Public | 1.8 mi |
| School | Grades | Students | Affiliation | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Landmark Christian SchoolHaines City | Pre-K–12 | 255 | Baptist | 1.1 mi |
| Aba Haines City IncHaines City | K–12 | 208 | Christian (no specific denomination) | 1.0 mi |
| Esthers School Inc - Haines CityHaines City | K–12 | 122 | Christian (no specific denomination) | 1.4 mi |
| Millennium Christian AcademyHaines City | K–7 | 109 | Assembly of God | 1.5 mi |
| New Direction AcademyHaines City | K–12 | 143 | Nonsectarian | 1.1 mi |
| Kids Academy LighthouseHaines City | 2–11 | 11 | Nonsectarian | 0.9 mi |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, NCES: Common Core of Data (2024-2025) for public schools; Private School Universe Survey (2023-2024) for private schools. Listed by address; we don’t rate schools.
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Shares ZIP codes with Davenport, Poinciana, Grenelefe, Loughman and Lake Hamilton.
Town boundaries don’t always match ZIP codes: a ZIP code can cross into neighboring towns, and a town can share a ZIP code with its neighbors. Facts describe the town itself; market figures describe whole ZIP codes.