Photo: Ebyabe · CC BY-SA 3.0Sebastian has 0.4 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Jobs and income earn Sebastian C; getting around on foot earns it C+. 4,293 jobs are based in Sebastian, and 9,574 of its residents work somewhere. About one in ten stay in Sebastian for work; outside it, Vero Beach is the main destination (13%, 11 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Sebastian
What’s behind Sebastian’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Sebastian is better than 32% of U.S. towns, #489 of 638 in Florida. The poverty rate holds Sebastian’s grade up (10.1%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down (7.2%, U.S. 5.2%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sebastian could be anywhere from C− to B−.
How far it is to work from Sebastian
About 33% 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.
How many people are in Sebastian by day
On a workday 8,622 residents head out to work, 952 work right here, and 3,341 people come in from elsewhere.
About 22,000 people are in Sebastian on a workday afternoon, 19% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where the trip to work from Sebastian ends
Where Sebastian clocks in
13% of workers
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.
The kinds of work in Sebastian
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sebastian, 2013 → 2023: 3,240 → 4,293. 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 Sebastian’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 31 minutes in Sebastian
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sebastian workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 9,173 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.
Driving is how Sebastian gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sebastian is more walkable than 39% of U.S. towns, #518 of 638 in Florida. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.0% 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 10,111 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 2.5% of Sebastian households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Sebastian’s commuters take a bus or train.
Sebastian places 1,252nd of 1,509 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 19,000 to 37,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 84 | Palm Valley FL | 19,796 | $117K | 4.2% | 1.2% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 99 | Jacksonville Beach FL | 23,615 | $121K | 4.8% | 1.8% | 14% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 113 | Palmetto Bay FL | 24,886 | $142K | 5.8% | 2.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,250 | Moses Lake WA | 27,469 | $75K | 15.8% | 4.6% | 40% | C |
| 1,251 | Egypt Lake-Leto FL | 35,873 | $54K | 16.7% | 7.1% | 4% | C |
| 1,252 | Sebastian FL | 27,352 | $69K | 10.1% | 7.2% | 10% | C |
| 1,253 | Englewood FL | 20,091 | $69K | 8.5% | 6.0% | 14% | C |
| 1,254 | Muscatine IA | 23,164 | $58K | 19.1% | 4.3% | 51% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 1,509 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Sebastian, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
Work in the towns next to Sebastian
The biggest share goes to Roseland (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Sebastian’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 Sebastian: questions
What is the median household income in Sebastian?
$69,409 (±$6,139) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sebastian?
10.1%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sebastian?
31 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sebastian work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Vero Beach (13%, 11 mi), Melbourne (4%, 25 mi), Palm Bay (3%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sebastian walkable?
Sebastian is more walkable than 39% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sebastian without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sebastian, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sebastian
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.