Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Pensacola grades C overall, 333rd among Florida's 634 graded towns, with clear strengths and some subjects that lag. It is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 83% of U.S. towns. On the other side, FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 84% of U.S. communities, with hurricanes at the top. History is its standout character grade: an A, better than 93% of U.S. towns, with 32 places on the National Register. 39% of working residents work locally in Pensacola, where Florida’s towns sit at 5% and U.S. towns at 8%. Its National Register listings include Plaza Ferdinand VII and Pensacola Historic District. On civic life, just 30 of Florida’s 327 towns do better.
Where Pensacola beats most towns.
Plaza Ferdinand VIIPlaza Ferdinand VII is a National Historic Landmark, the National Register’s top tier. Its founding year, 1559, is the earliest of any Florida town we grade.
Census counts: 2,164 in 1850, 54,312 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1770 and 5 maps from 1921 on.
32 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Florida), ordered by how far Pensacola is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Pensacola. Close and well known come first.
10 mi LandmarkFort Pickens
12 mi Ancient siteUSS Massachusetts
9 mi MuseumNational Naval Aviation Museum
5 mi National SeashoreGulf Islands National Seashore7.6M visitors a year
9 mi LandmarkFort Barrancas21 mi BeachOno IslandFort Pickens: Notneb82, CC BY-SA 3.0 · USS Massachusetts: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain · National Naval Aviation Museum: Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Gulf Islands National Seashore: National Park Service, Public domain · Fort Barrancas: National Park Service, Public domain
Who provides power, water and the rest in Pensacola, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 17, 2025.
Ordered by what stands out in Pensacola.
Pensacola draws workers from Ferry Pass and beyond, fares better on crime within Florida than nationally and has a longer frost-free season than most of the country, though not than most of Florida.
61,650 jobs are based in Pensacola, 2.8 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in. The average commute takes 22 minutes, against 28 across Florida.
About one in 3 of Pensacola’s working residents works in town. The average trip to work in Pensacola is 22 minutes. Jobs based in Pensacola grew to 61,650 in 2023, 8,651 more than in 2013.
| Pensacola | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 22 minutes | 27 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 17% | 14% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 13% | 11% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Its public schools are run by the Escambia school district. Three of its 26 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scenic Heights Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 773 | A− |
| Washington Senior High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,676 | C− |
| A. K. Suter Elementary SchoolTop results in townGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 500 | A |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within FL on state tests and graduation
923 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 141 properties have flooded more than once.
Since 1978, 923 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Pensacola.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The typical Pensacola home is worth about $265,000, up 1.3% in a year, 29% below the Florida typical home. 64% of households own their home in Pensacola.
| Pensacola | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 64% | 72% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,322 a month | $1,647 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Renters paying 30%+ of income on rent | 52% | 59% | 48% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
At 11 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 87% of Florida’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 668 to 248 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Pensacola’s property crime rate is 11.2 per 1,000 residents.
| Pensacola | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2023) | 11.2 per 1,000 residents | 18.2 | 13.1 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2023) | 1.3 per 1,000 residents | 2.2 | 1.8 |
FBI crime data, 2023 · crimes reported to police
The Pensacola Forest Sherman Nas weather station, 10 miles away, records that the frost-free season runs about 277 days: longer than most of the country, but shorter than 77% of Florida places with climate records. The Pensacola Forest Sherman Nas weather station, 10 miles away, records that about 56 days a year reach 90°: more than most of the country, but fewer than 85% of Florida places with climate records.
Pensacola has warm winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 90°, January nights drop to 44° and snow is almost unheard of.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
9.0 miles of trail in 52 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Roger Scott Park, at 48 acres.
| Pensacola | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.2 miles per square mile | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 1.9% | 3% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Bruce Beach Park | 1.2 mi | 20 |
| 2. Bayview Park | 0.6 mi | 30 |
| 3. Bay View Park | 0.4 mi | 34 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the Florida average. 43% of Pensacola adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more.
| Pensacola | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 43% | 31% | 29% |
| Under 18 | 19% | 20% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 21% | 20% | 18% |
52% women, 48% men
About 91 men for every 100 women (the survey’s margin: ±1.6 points). Across Florida, 50.9% of residents are women. Median age: women 45.0, men 38.1.
| Pensacola | FL | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 10.7% | 10.3% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 8% | 9.2% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 7.3% | 8.1% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 16.2% | 12.7% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 11.7% | 12.7% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 12% | 12.3% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 12.8% | 13.4% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 12.5% | 11.7% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 8.8% | 9.6% | 7% |
| No diploma | 7.1% | 10.1% | 10.4% |
| High school | 19.6% | 27.2% | 26% |
| Some college | 20.8% | 18.5% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 9.5% | 10.1% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 24.9% | 21.3% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 18.1% | 12.9% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
Pensacola beats the Florida average on 2 of 31 CDC measures and trails it on 0.
| Pensacola | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 40% | 37% | 35% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 18% | 23% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 11% | 14% | 8.1% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 15% | 16% |
| What stands out | Pensacola | FL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer uninsured adults | 10.7% | 15.9% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 14.9% | 16.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
2 within 15 miles of the center of Pensacola
About 5 of every 100 Pensacola residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Florida.
32 places in Pensacola on the National Register of Historic Places.
44 notable people were born in Pensacola.
City in Florida, United States of America
Pensacola is a city in the Florida panhandle in the United States. It is the county seat and only city in Escambia County. The population was 54,312 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Pensacola metropolitan area, which had 509,905 residents in the 2020 census. Pensacola was first settled by the Spanish Empire in 1559, antedating the establishment of St. Augustine by six years, but was abandoned due to a significant hurricane and not resettled until 1698. Pensacola is a seaport on Pensacola Bay, which is protected by the barrier island of Santa Rosa and connects to the Gulf of Mexico. A large United States Naval Air Station, the first and continuously largest in the United S…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
6 towns share a border with Pensacola.
Gulf Breeze next door grades higher for schools (A− to Pensacola’s C−) and lower for cost of living (D to C).
| Town | FL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pensacola | #333 | C | C | B+ | C− | B |
| Ferry Pass | #473 | C− | C | — | C− | B |
| Goulding | #546 | D | B+ | — | C− | D− |
| Brent | #468 | C− | B | — | C− | C− |
| West Pensacola | #540 | D | B+ | — | C− | D− |
| Gulf Breeze | #23 | A− | D | A | A− | A |
| Warrington | #560 | D | B− | — | C− | D |
Ferry Pass, Goulding, Brent, West Pensacola and Warrington report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Pensacola with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Pensacola grades C overall, better than 32% of U.S. towns and #333 of 634 in Florida. It grades B for health, B+ for safety and C− for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C.
44 notable people were born here, including Roman Reigns and Roy Jones Jr..
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