About Highland Beach

Highland Beach is a very small coastal town (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Florida. With a population of 3,612 people and just one neighborhood, Highland Beach is the 364th largest community in Florida.

Highland Beach is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 93.26% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Highland Beach is a town of managers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Highland Beach who work in management occupations (28.68%), sales jobs (13.76%), and office and administrative support jobs (10.68%).

Of important note, Highland Beach is also a town of artists. Highland Beach has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Highland Beach's character.

Also of interest is that Highland Beach has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

A relatively large number of people in Highland Beach telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 12.55% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

Highland Beach is a major vacation destination. Much of the town's population is seasonal: many people own second homes and only live there part-time, during the vacation season. The effect on the local economy is that many of the businesses are dependant on tourist dollars, and may operate only during the high season. As the vacation season ends, Highland Beach's population drops significantly, such that year-round residents will notice that the city is a much quieter place to live.

Seniors make up 54.37% of Highland Beach's population, making it a popular place to retire. Because of the prominence of the retirement community, Highland Beach is good place for those over 65 to settle, as they will find many opportunities for socializing, as well as having access to many services oriented toward seniors.

One of the nice things about Highland Beach is that is it nautical, meaning that parts of the town are somewhat historic and on the ocean, or touch tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and tidal rivers. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.

Highland Beach is a small town, and as is often the case with smaller towns, the population isn't large or dense enough to support much in the way of a public transportation system. In fact, there are many rural roads around Highland Beach, which makes walking or biking to and from work a bit difficult. This makes for a very car-oriented town: 96.5% of residents commute to work by private automobile, and people often drive out of town for work, shopping, and other activities.

As is often the case in a small town, Highland Beach doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.

Highland Beach Information and Demographics

Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to Highland Beach, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. Highland Beach is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 48.97% of its adults having a college degree or even advanced degree, compared to a national average across all communities of 14.96%.

The per capita income in Highland Beach in 2000 was $67,288, which is wealthy relative to Florida and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $269,152 for a family of four. However, Highland Beach contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Highland Beach home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Highland Beach is White, followed by African-American. Important ancestries of people in Highland Beach include Russian, Italian, German, Irish, English, Polish, and Austrian.

The most common language spoken in Highland Beach is English. Other important languages spoken here include German and Spanish.