The City of Palm Bay is approximately 88 square miles with a population approaching 120,000 residents, making it the second largest city in central Florida. Palm Bay’s top industries include engineering and defense contracting with major employers such as L3Harris, Renesas Electronics, and Raytheon Technologies. The Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) is ranked by USA Today as #12 in the nation with the most high-tech jobs (2019).
Palm Bay is a family-centric community offering a wide variety of recreational amenities to include hiking, biking, boating, fishing, and paddle boarding to name a few. Its active residents and key stakeholders ensure that Palm Bay maintains smart and strategic growth and development practices to ensure a high quality of life for the community.
Palm Bay has three exits off Interstate 95 at Palm Bay Road (mile market 176), Malabar Road (mile marker 173), and St. Johns Heritage Parkway (mile marker 166). The expansion of St. Johns Heritage Parkway provides a unique opportunity for growth and development in the City and is expected to provide greater access throughout the central and southern portions of Brevard County. At its northeastern city limits, Palm Bay is situated along the Indian River Lagoon, the most biologically diverse natural estuaries in North America with approximately 4,000 species documented.
Palm Bay is located within minutes of the Melbourne International Airport, Port Canaveral, Kennedy Space Center and beautiful beaches and approximately one hour from Orlando International Airport, theme parks and attractions.
The City welcomes you and your family to Palm Bay, a community in which to live, work and play!
Data & Demographics
Community Profile
Population: 136,059 (derived from FPL’s Active Residential Meter Count Estimate, October 2023)
Population with Associates, Bachelor, Graduate Degrees: 38%
Population with High School Degree and higher: 91.1%
Median Age: 41.3
Daytime Population: 93,206
Civilian Employed: 95.7%
Employed Population by Occupation:
White Collar: 56.9%
Services: 19.5%
Blue Collar: 23.6%
Housing Units: 50,608
Owner-Occupied: 71.7%
Renter-Occupied: 21.7%
Vacant: 6.7%
Households: 48,712
Average Household Size: 2.57
Average Household Income: $79,356
Average Disposable Income: $63,742
Business & Industry Profile
Total Businesses: 2,966
Total Employees: 21,300
**All data is provided through ESRI unless otherwise cited. Last update: November 2023
Higher Education
Palm Bay has a large higher education footprint. Florida Institute of Technology (Florida
Tech), a private university known for excellence in engineering, science, aviation, business
and psychology, sits just outside city limits. In Palm Bay, Florida Tech operates the Center
for Advanced Manufacturing and Innovative Design (CAMID), a state-of-the-art enterprise
accelerator that provides local companies of all sizes with access to high-tech design and
fabrication equipment, training workshops, and networking opportunities.
The University of Central Florida also has a satellite campus in Palm Bay that provides
resources for students seeking to transfer into one of the many academic programs that
UCF provides. With so many classes now exclusively online, the availability of web access
makes pursuing higher education from Florida’s largest public institution much more
attainable.
Finally, Eastern Florida State College, Brevard County’s largest education institution with
Bachelor’s academic programs ranging from Computer Information Systems Technology to teaching and nursing, also has a large footprint in Palm Bay and currently has an 82%
graduation rate for students graduating within three years of enrollment.
