Photo: formulanone from Huntsville, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0Unemployment in Riviera Beach (8.6%) is higher than in 91% of U.S. towns
The trip to work takes 25 minutes on average; Florida averages 28, the U.S. 26. For jobs and income Riviera Beach is better than 32% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns (A). About one in ten work in Riviera Beach; the top destination outside it is West Palm Beach (16%, 4 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Riviera Beach and work: the main findings
The jobs in Riviera Beach pay better than its residents’ jobs
71% of the jobs based in Riviera Beach pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 49% of the jobs Riviera Beach residents hold. 94% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Riviera Beach. The jobs ↓
A lot of Riviera Beach works one town over
28% of working residents work in a town that borders Riviera Beach: West Palm Beach (16%), Palm Beach Gardens (8%) and Lake Park (2%). Next door ↓
Riviera Beach draws workers from far and wide
The 22,333 jobs in Riviera Beach are filled from a wide area. Riviera Beach’s own residents hold 6% and the ten next-biggest home towns 32%; the other 62% 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.
Why Riviera Beach gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Job access by car holds Riviera Beach’s grade up (ahead of 84% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Riviera Beach could be anywhere from C− to C+.
71% of the jobs in Riviera Beach pay over $3,333 a month
22,333 jobs are based in Riviera Beach.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Riviera Beach, 2013 → 2023: 17,514 → 22,333. 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 Riviera Beach’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Riviera Beach’s working residents head each day
Where Riviera Beach clocks in
5% 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 many people are in Riviera Beach by day
On a workday 14,179 residents head out to work, 1,414 work right here, and 20,919 people come in from elsewhere.
About 46,000 people are in Riviera Beach on a workday afternoon, 17% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.43 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.
Getting to work from Riviera Beach takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Riviera Beach workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 14,891 commuters (the 12% 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.
How far Riviera Beach’s workers travel
About 20% 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: Riviera Beach
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 16,993 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 96% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 30% 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). 8.5% of Riviera Beach households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Riviera Beach’s commuters take a bus or train.
Riviera Beach places 898th of 1,064 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 28,000 to 53,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 58 | Parkland FL | 39,186 | $199K | 4.3% | 3.1% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 117 | Fruit Cove FL | 35,877 | $142K | 2.7% | 2.8% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 142 | Cooper City FL | 35,030 | $132K | 5.0% | 4.0% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 896 | Woonsocket RI | 44,580 | $61K | 18.7% | 6.8% | 15% | C |
| 897 | Coachella CA | 45,411 | $69K | 10.2% | 9.1% | 11% | C |
| 898 | Riviera Beach FL | 39,357 | $68K | 18.4% | 8.6% | 9% | C |
| 899 | Adams Township IN | 35,669 | $60K | 16.4% | 6.0% | 12% | C |
| 900 | Huntington Park CA | 51,544 | $60K | 18.3% | 9.5% | 5% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 1,064 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Riviera Beach, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
Riviera Beach and its neighbors: 28% work next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Riviera Beach workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riviera Beach | – | C | A | 25 min | $68,060 |
| West Palm Beach | 16% | B− | A | 23 min | $73,446 |
| Lake Park | 2% | B− | A | 21 min | $70,954 |
| North Palm Beach | under 2% | A− | A− | 20 min | $90,049 |
| Palm Beach Shores | under 2% | A− | A+ | 35 min | $86,786 |
| Palm Beach Gardens | 8% | A− | B+ | 23 min | $106,947 |
| Palm Beach | 2% | A− | A+ | 24 min | $168,403 |
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 Riviera 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 Riviera Beach: questions
What is the median household income in Riviera Beach?
$68,060 (±$6,975) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Riviera Beach?
18.4%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Riviera Beach?
25 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Riviera Beach work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are West Palm Beach (16%, 4 mi), Palm Beach Gardens (8%, 7 mi), Palm Springs (5%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Riviera Beach walkable?
Riviera Beach is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 12.8 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Riviera Beach without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 30% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Riviera Beach, from the people who make the trip.
More of Riviera 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.