Photo: Connor J Williams · CC BY 2.0More people are out of work in Cocoa (5.6%) than in 69% of U.S. towns
Cocoa grades C for jobs and income and A for walkability. For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 4.2 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 1.6 in Palm Bay. About one in ten stay in Cocoa for work; outside it, Rockledge is the main destination (7%, 4 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Cocoa, in a few figures
No single place dominates Cocoa’s commute
The biggest draw, Rockledge, gets only 7% of working residents, and 52% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Cocoa residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
Cocoa has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Cocoa went from 7,674 in 2013 to 10,633 in 2023, +39%. The jobs ↓
Cocoa draws workers from far and wide
The 10,633 jobs in Cocoa are filled from a wide area. Cocoa’s own residents hold 6% and the ten next-biggest home towns 36%; the other 58% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Inside Cocoa’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cocoa is better than 33% of U.S. towns, #477 of 638 in Florida. Job access by car holds Cocoa’s grade up (ahead of 56% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cocoa could be anywhere from C− to B.
The places Cocoa commutes to
Where Cocoa clocks in
7% 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.
A place that makes things: 30% of Cocoa’s jobs are in goods
10,633 jobs are based in Cocoa.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cocoa, 2013 → 2023: 7,674 → 10,633. 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’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Cocoa by day and by night
On a workday 7,190 residents head out to work, 690 work right here, and 9,943 people come in from elsewhere.
About 23,000 people are in Cocoa on a workday afternoon, 14% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.35 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
A commute of about 26 minutes in Cocoa
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 workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 8,537 commuters (the 9% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Cocoa
About 24% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Cocoa
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cocoa is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns, #95 of 638 in Florida. Both inputs place Cocoa near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 9,394 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 76% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 28% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 4.2 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 81% 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). 10.4% of Cocoa households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 4% of Cocoa’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 14,000 to 27,000, Cocoa ranks 1,475th of 1,860 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ada Township MI | 14,769 | $168K | 2.0% | 0.7% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 68 | Pinecrest FL | 18,635 | $206K | 4.3% | 3.0% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 93 | Lake Butler FL | 17,125 | $183K | 3.7% | 2.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 121 | Palm Valley FL | 19,796 | $117K | 4.2% | 1.2% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,473 | Goulds FL | 14,425 | $62K | 16.4% | 7.5% | 1% | C |
| 1,474 | Wimauma FL | 15,266 | $68K | 23.6% | 4.1% | 2% | C |
| 1,475 | Cocoa FL | 19,777 | $63K | 13.1% | 5.6% | 9% | C |
| 1,476 | Willowbrook CA | 21,681 | $63K | 18.3% | 11.3% | 2% | C |
| 1,477 | Huntington IN | 17,167 | $57K | 15.0% | 4.6% | 33% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 1,860 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
12% of Cocoa works in a bordering town
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Cocoa workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cocoa | – | C | A | 26 min | $63,105 |
| Cocoa West | under 2% | C− | B− | 25 min | $34,126 |
| Rockledge | 7% | B | B | 23 min | $84,255 |
| Sharpes | under 2% | C− | B+ | 37 min | $69,531 |
| Merritt Island | 5% | B+ | B | 25 min | $94,012 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Rockledge. Darker towns draw more of Cocoa’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: questions
What is the median household income in Cocoa?
$63,105 (±$10,431) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cocoa?
13.1%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cocoa?
26 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cocoa work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rockledge (7%, 4 mi), Palm Bay (7%, 30 mi), Melbourne (6%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cocoa walkable?
Cocoa is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 12.0 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cocoa without a car?
4% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. 28% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cocoa, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cocoa
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.