Photo: Connor J Williams · CC BY 2.0More people are out of work in Cocoa Beach (9.0%) than in 92% of U.S. towns
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 5.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 1.6 in Palm Bay. Cocoa Beach grades C+ for jobs and income and A for walkability. Home is the office for 25% of workers; Florida has 16%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Cocoa Beach and work: the main findings
No single place dominates Cocoa Beach’s commute
The biggest draw, Melbourne, gets only 6% of working residents, and 51% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Cocoa Beach residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
Cocoa Beach is where the jobs are
Cocoa Beach has 6,802 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A lot of Cocoa Beach works from home
25% of Cocoa Beach workers work from home, against 16% across Florida. Time on the road ↓
Cocoa Beach’s workforce skews older
39% of Cocoa Beach’s working residents are 55 or older. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Where Cocoa Beach’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cocoa Beach is better than 39% of U.S. towns, #423 of 638 in Florida. Household income holds Cocoa Beach’s grade up ($87,990, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down. It also does well on the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cocoa Beach could be anywhere from C to B.
Commuting in to Cocoa Beach: where workers come from
Where Cocoa Beach clocks in
6% of workers
6% of workers
6% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
How a workday changes Cocoa Beach
On a workday 3,357 residents head out to work, 731 work right here, and 6,071 people come in from elsewhere.
About 14,000 people are in Cocoa Beach on a workday afternoon, 24% more than live here.
1.7 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Each way, about 26 minutes from Cocoa Beach
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cocoa Beach workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,473 commuters (the 25% who work from home are left out). Across Florida: 83% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
In Cocoa Beach, services account for most jobs
6,802 jobs are based in Cocoa Beach.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cocoa Beach, 2013 → 2023: 5,404 → 6,802. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Cocoa Beach’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Cocoa Beach to work
About 29% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Cocoa Beach, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cocoa Beach is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns, #159 of 638 in Florida. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.6% across Florida.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,617 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 85% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 39% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 5.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 85% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 7.6% of Cocoa Beach households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cocoa Beach’s commuters take a bus or train.
Cocoa Beach next to U.S. towns of 8,000 to 15,000: 1,758th of 2,507 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 235 | Key Biscayne FL | 14,815 | $182K | 5.5% | 2.8% | 12% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 301 | Asbury Lake FL | 14,458 | $101K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 322 | Westlake FL | 9,042 | $132K | 3.2% | 2.8% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,756 | Butner NC | 8,112 | $75K | 15.0% | 5.5% | 6% | C+ |
| 1,757 | Sitka AK | 8,319 | $102K | 7.5% | 6.8% | — | C+ |
| 1,758 | Cocoa Beach FL | 11,314 | $88K | 9.6% | 9.0% | 18% | C+ |
| 1,759 | West Athens CA | 8,726 | $67K | 15.3% | 10.0% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,760 | Burley ID | 12,409 | $67K | 15.3% | 2.8% | 35% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,507 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 22% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Cocoa Beach, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
Next door to Cocoa Beach
The biggest share goes to Merritt Island (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Cocoa Beach workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cocoa Beach | – | C+ | A | 26 min | $87,990 |
| Merritt Island | 3% | B+ | B | 25 min | $94,012 |
| Cape Canaveral | 3% | B− | A | 23 min | $67,276 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Cocoa Beach’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Cocoa Beach: questions
What is the median household income in Cocoa Beach?
$87,990 (±$9,906) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cocoa Beach?
9.6%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cocoa Beach?
26 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 25% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cocoa Beach work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Melbourne (6%, 15 mi), Palm Bay (6%, 26 mi), Orlando (6%, 43 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cocoa Beach walkable?
Cocoa Beach is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 12.7 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cocoa Beach without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 39% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cocoa Beach, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cocoa Beach
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.