Santa Rosa County, FL

County Profile

198,472 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Santa Rosa 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.

64out of 100
Area Score
Top 43% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity694th of 1,255 counties53
SchoolsTop 22% of 973 counties73
GrowthTop 10% of 1,226 counties74
Housing affordability773rd of 1,255 counties88
ClimateTop 8% of 1,254 counties79
Physical resilience1109th of 1,255 counties25
AccessTop 44% of 1,255 counties84
Economic stabilityTop 35% of 1,255 counties71
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.8% and median household income $91,922, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 68% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 18.4 students for every teacher.

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

At a glance

Population
198,472
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$91,922
Top 8% nationally
Density
196/sq mi
1012.4 sq mi of land
Median age
40.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Santa Rosa County
Florida
Metro area
Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL
Nearest major airport
CEW
30 mi · Bob Sikes
Median home value
$329,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.8% is lower than 28% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.7% over the past year, to 87,796 employed residents.

32% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 81% of measured US locations.

Household income is higher than at least 92% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,448$91,922Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,212$42,760Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.8%Bottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute32.4 minTop 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher32.0%Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment87,796Top 29%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.1%Bottom 31%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.7%Top 50%June 2026
Labor force92,244Top 29%June 2026
Labor force participation59.8%Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.7%Top 18%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.8%Top 28%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.82.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.8% 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
202120222023202492k77k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $91,922 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 — Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers6,970$28,360
Retail Salespersons6,720$31,870
Registered Nurses5,070$77,890
Cashiers4,690$29,910
Waiters and Waitresses4,260$35,340
Office Clerks, General4,160$39,960

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.

68% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 60% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 18.4 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
39
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
18.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
67.7%
Top 5% in Florida
Reading proficiency
59.6%
Top 18% in Florida
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
NAVARRE HIGH SCHOOLSANTA ROSA2,41026.2
PACE HIGH SCHOOLSANTA ROSA2,31625.7
MILTON HIGH SCHOOLSANTA ROSA1,98523.6
GULF BREEZE HIGH SCHOOLSANTA ROSA1,94625.9
EAST BAY K-8 SCHOOLSANTA ROSA1,10018.0
WALLACE LAKE K-8SANTA ROSA1,06117.4
GULF BREEZE MIDDLE SCHOOLSANTA ROSA91621.890%73%
BENNETT C RUSSELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLSANTA ROSA89915.054%59%
WOODLAWN BEACH MIDDLE SCHOOLSANTA ROSA88220.079%59%
GULF BREEZE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLSANTA ROSA86514.989%84%
PEA RIDGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLSANTA ROSA84614.857%55%
HOLLEY-NAVARRE MIDDLE SCHOOLSANTA ROSA82320.177%66%

44.4% 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 $1,544 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.6 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
20.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,544
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$329,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.59Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate80.6%Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±7980,002Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$73$1,544Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$6,113$329,800Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.2%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.2%Bottom 26%2024 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
74/ 100
Top 10% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2020 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 10% since 2020, reaching 207,653 in 2024.

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

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

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 8% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 10.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
2,074
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
10.4
Top 7% nationally
Year over year
+6%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
8.2%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024208k189k
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
2020202120222023202420252k2k
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−13%).

Weather & climate

8 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 93°F and January a low of 42°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 66.4 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 46, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station WHITING FIELD NAS SOUTH, 2.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index60.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation66.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low42°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high93°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index46.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing30°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
46
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
60
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

25 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneElevated
LightningModerate
Coastal floodingModerate

Low or minimal exposure: tornado, heat wave, wildfire, inland flooding, cold wave, earthquake, drought, winter weather, hail, landslide, strong wind, ice storm.

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.

Santa Rosa County records 3.6 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 16.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 15.3 per 100,000 residents in Santa Rosa County.

Homicide
3.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.2
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
15.3
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
20.7
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 Santa Rosa 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 Santa Rosa County rather than Santa Rosa 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
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. 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.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 30 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Bob SikesCEW30 mi8,006 ft
Mobile RgnlMOB73 mi8,502 ft
Northwest Florida Beaches IntlECP76 mi10,000 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
64
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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.