Photo: Michael Kagdis · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Palm Beach are higher than in 97% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 40% of workers, next to 16% for Florida as a whole. Poverty touches 6.9% of residents, where Florida as a whole has 12.6%. The two grades for Palm Beach are A− for jobs and income and A+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Palm Beach apart on work
Palm Beach fills up on a workday
Palm Beach has 15,420 jobs, 6.1 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 22,000 people are in town, more than double the 9,400 who live here. Day and night ↓
Home offices are common in Palm Beach
40% of Palm Beach workers work from home, against 16% across Florida. Time on the road ↓
Palm Beach draws workers from far and wide
The 15,420 jobs in Palm Beach are filled from a wide area. The ten biggest home towns of its workers supply 34%; the other 63% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Palm Beach has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Palm Beach went from 10,808 in 2013 to 15,420 in 2023, +43%. The jobs ↓
Palm Beach’s workforce skews older
39% of Palm 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Palm Beach’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Palm Beach is better than 83% of U.S. towns, #81 of 638 in Florida. Household income holds Palm Beach’s grade up ($168,403, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (4.9%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Palm Beach could be anywhere from B to A+.
Palm Beach’s population more than doubles on a workday
On a workday 2,048 residents head out to work, 466 work right here, and 14,954 people come in from elsewhere.
About 22,000 people are in Palm Beach on a workday afternoon, 137% more than live here.
6.1 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.
Getting to work from Palm Beach takes about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Palm Beach workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,741 commuters (the 40% 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.
Where Palm Beach’s workers come from
Where Palm Beach clocks in
4% of workers
3% 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Palm Beach
15,420 jobs are based in Palm Beach.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Palm Beach, 2013 → 2023: 10,808 → 15,420. 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 Palm Beach’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Palm Beach
About 27% 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.
Palm Beach is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Palm Beach is more walkable than 95% of U.S. towns, #41 of 638 in Florida. Both inputs place Palm Beach 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 2,900 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 54% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 40% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 2.6% of Palm Beach households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Palm Beach’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 2,806 U.S. towns of 6,600 to 12,700, Palm Beach comes 700th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | Southwest Ranches FL | 7,773 | $161K | 3.8% | 1.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 176 | Neptune Beach FL | 7,020 | $119K | 3.1% | 2.1% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 335 | Westlake FL | 9,042 | $132K | 3.2% | 2.8% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 698 | Frankstown Township PA | 7,423 | $98K | 7.1% | 0.8% | 4% | A− |
| 699 | Sappington MO | 7,367 | $78K | 3.9% | 3.9% | 3% | A− |
| 700 | Palm Beach FL | 9,423 | $168K | 6.9% | 4.9% | 19% | A− |
| 701 | East Rutherford NJ | 10,566 | $98K | 7.4% | 4.3% | 5% | A− |
| 702 | Jackson WY | 10,720 | $119K | 4.4% | 1.2% | 61% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,806 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Palm Beach, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
Next door is work for 12% of Palm Beach
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Palm Beach workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palm Beach | – | A− | A+ | 24 min | $168,403 |
| Lantana | under 2% | C+ | A | 23 min | $70,012 |
| West Palm Beach | 12% | B− | A | 23 min | $73,446 |
| Lake Worth Beach | under 2% | C | A | 27 min | $61,200 |
| Riviera Beach | under 2% | C | A | 25 min | $68,060 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to West Palm Beach. Darker towns draw more of Palm 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 Palm Beach: questions
What is the median household income in Palm Beach?
$168,403 (±$59,823) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Palm Beach?
6.9%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Palm Beach?
24 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 40% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Palm Beach work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are West Palm Beach (12%, 6 mi), Boca Raton (4%, 23 mi), Fort Lauderdale (3%, 39 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Palm Beach walkable?
Palm Beach is more walkable than 95% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 11.2 out of 20, and 13% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Palm Beach without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 40% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Palm Beach, from the people who make the trip.
More of Palm 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.