Palm Beach County, FL

County Profile

1,533,806 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Palm Beach County, FL.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

54out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 21% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 50% of 1,255 counties measured56
Schools647th of 973 counties measured37
GrowthTop 16% of 1,226 counties measured69
Housing affordability1213th of 1,255 counties measured54
ClimateTop 4% of 1,254 counties measured83
Physical resilience1164th of 1,255 counties measured19
AccessTop 23% of 1,255 counties measured92
Economic stability733rd of 1,255 counties measured56
The quick read

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 7,103 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 71% on the prior year.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 5.4 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 28% of it.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane, lightning and tornado.

At a glance

Population
1,533,806
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$83,581
Top 14% nationally
Density
781/sq mi
1964.3 sq mi of land
Median age
45.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Palm Beach County
Florida
Metro area
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL
Nearest major airport
DJT
22 mi · President Donald J Trump Intl
Median home value
$447,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.6% is lower than 34% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.8% over the past year, to 740,511 employed residents.

41% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 92% of measured US locations.

Household income is higher than at least 86% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$1,022$83,581Top 14%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$729$52,359Top 5%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.3%Bottom 34%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute28.6 minTop 31%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher40.5%Top 8%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment740,511Top 2%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.9%Bottom 34%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.8%Bottom 48%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force776,104Top 2%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation59.6%Top 45%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.7%Top 18%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.6%Top 34%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.12.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.6% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202484k69k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $83,581 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons91,370$34,330
General and Operations Managers74,960$105,640
Customer Service Representatives63,440$39,560
Registered Nurses61,670$91,380
Office Clerks, General61,160$44,730
Waiters and Waitresses57,830$36,070

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

52% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 54% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.7 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
230
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
51.6%
Bottom 28% in Florida
Reading proficiency
54.5%
Top 44% in Florida
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
JOHN I. LEONARD HIGH SCHOOLPALM BEACH3,26220.0
JUPITER HIGH SCHOOLPALM BEACH3,12218.9
PARK VISTA COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOLPALM BEACH2,88117.6
BOCA RATON COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOLPALM BEACH2,81917.4
PALM BEACH LAKES HIGH SCHOOLPALM BEACH2,80921.8
PALM BEACH CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOLPALM BEACH2,76019.4
SPANISH RIVER COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOLPALM BEACH2,73020.2
WELLINGTON HIGH SCHOOLPALM BEACH2,68918.5
LAKE WORTH HIGH SCHOOLPALM BEACH2,58917.9
DR. JOAQUIN GARCIA HIGH SCHOOLPALM BEACH2,54121.7
SANTALUCES COMMUNITY HIGHPALM BEACH2,45219.5
PALM BEACH GARDENS HIGH SCHOOLPALM BEACH2,40717.3

44.9% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Florida’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,916 takes 28% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.4 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
27.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,916
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$447,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income5.35Top 7%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate70.1%Bottom 29%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±352719,463Top 1%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$19$1,916Top 2%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$4,180$447,300Top 6%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income27.5%Top 1%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate15.8%Top 43%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
69/ 100
Top 16% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 6% since 2020, reaching 1,582,055 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

At 4.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
7,103
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.6
Top 33% nationally
Year over year
+71%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
53.1%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
202020212022202320241582k1494k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
20222023202420256k4k
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−26%).

Weather & climate

8 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 90°F and January a low of 58°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 61.7 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 43, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station WEST PALM BEACH INTL AP, 21.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND8.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index57.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation61.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low58°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index43.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing17°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
43
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
57
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

19 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, lightning and tornado.

HurricaneElevated
LightningModerate
TornadoModerate
Coastal floodingModerate
Cold waveModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: inland flooding, heat wave, wildfire, drought, strong wind, earthquake, hail.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Palm Beach County records 4.7 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 11.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 13.8 per 100,000 residents in Palm Beach County.

Homicide
4.7
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
11.1
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
13.8
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
14.4
per 100,000 residents

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Palm Beach County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Palm Beach County rather than Palm Beach County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

6 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 22 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
President Donald J Trump IntlDJT22 mi10,001 ft
Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood IntlFLL44 mi8,000 ft
Miami-Opa Locka ExecOPF52 mi8,002 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
54
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.