Palm Bay is a relatively large coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of Florida. With a population of 135,566 people and 22 associated neighborhoods, Palm Bay is the 16th largest community in Florida.Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Palm Bay is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Palm Bay is a city of sales and office workers, professionals, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Palm Bay who work in office and administrative support (13.77%), management occupations (9.18%), and sales jobs (9.17%). Also of interest is that Palm Bay has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 9.44% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes. One of the nice things about Palm Bay is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities. The population of Palm Bay overall has a level of education that is slightly above the US average for all US cities and towns of 21.84%. Of adults 25 and older in Palm Bay, 22.57% have at least a bachelor's degree. The per capita income in Palm Bay in 2022 was $34,474, which is middle income relative to Florida and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $137,896 for a family of four. However, Palm Bay contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Palm Bay is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Palm Bay home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Palm Bay residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Palm Bay also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 19.72% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Palm Bay include Irish, German, English, Italian, and Jamaican. Palm Bay also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 15.08%. The most common language spoken in Palm Bay is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and French.
