BestOnlineCollege.org is an advertising-supported website. Many of the school and program listings that appear on this site are from partners who compensate us, and this compensation may affect how, where, and in what order listings appear (such as featured placements). This compensation does not influence our editorial content, evaluations, or rankings, which are determined independently using publicly available data. We do not review or feature every school or program available in the marketplace. Our goal is to provide accurate, unbiased information so you can make informed decisions. Read our full Advertiser Disclosure.
Lakeland, Florida has 15 accredited schools offering paralegal programs, with tuition ranging from $2,506 to $18,612 per year for indexed programs. Lakeland has a population of about 117,030. Median household income is $60,947 (Census ACS 2023, 5-year). About 27.7% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL metro area, the top-earning paralegal-related role is Lawyer at a median $122,870 annually (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer paralegal programs near Lakeland, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from Lakeland city center. The list is rebuilt from federal IPEDS data on every site update.
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS). To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked against schools at the same credential level:
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score. On this page, schools are ordered by distance from Lakeland. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source: IPEDS / College Scorecard (2023 cohort). Browse all Florida schools on the Florida paralegal page.
Lakeland is part of the Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL metro area (BLS area code 29460). Where MSA-level wages are published, the table below shows MSA medians; otherwise it falls back to Florida statewide.
| Occupation | Median Wage | Source | COL-Adjusted (US=100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paralegal and Legal Assistant | $49,520 | Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL | $50,999 |
| Legal Secretary and Administrative Assistant | $38,150 | Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL | $39,289 |
| Lawyer | $122,870 | Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL | $126,540 |
Source: BLS, May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wage data at the metro (MSA) and state level – not by individual city.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 117,030 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B01003) |
| Median household income | $60,947 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B19013) |
| Adults 25+ with bachelor’s+ | 27.7% | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B15003) |
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 97.1 (below U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
Our directory has 15 accredited schools offering paralegal programs near Lakeland. The closest is Traviss Technical College in Lakeland, FL (5.6 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is State College of Florida-Manatee-Sarasota (57.8 miles). 6 of the highlighted schools are flagged as offering distance education.
Based on BLS OEWS May 2025 wage data, the top-paying paralegal-related roles near Lakeland are: Lawyer ($122,870), Paralegal and Legal Assistant ($49,520), Legal Secretary and Administrative Assistant ($38,150). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with Florida statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
Plant City, FL is 10.5 miles from Lakeland and has its own set of local paralegal programs – see the city’s page. For online programs, distance matters less; for hybrid or in-person formats, comparing both can help.
Lakeland’s median household income of $60,947 (Census ACS 2023) is one input. Online programs let students stay in Lakeland while attending lower-cost out-of-state schools, and Florida public universities often offer reduced in-state online tuition.
Confirm institutional accreditation via the U.S. Department of Education database (U.S. Dept. of Education database), and check for any program-specific accreditation listed by the school.
Compare every accredited online degree program with city-level data for Lakeland:
Data verified: August 11, 2026. Salary, employment, and tuition figures on this page are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025; Employment Projections 2024–2034) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2023 cohort). The source agency and data year are cited inline with every statistic.
