Palm Beach is a somewhat small coastal town (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Florida. With a population of 10,374 people and four constituent neighborhoods, Palm Beach is the 232nd largest community in Florida.

Palm Beach is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 98.13% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Palm Beach is a town of managers, sales and office workers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Palm Beach who work in sales jobs (22.82%), management occupations (18.10%), and business and financial occupations (13.80%).

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

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their homes - 20.33% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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.

Palm Beach is an extremely popular destination for tourists and seasonal residents. So much of the population is seasonal such that the town's population swells significantly during the vacation season, and drops again when the season ends. Because of this, much of the local economy is centered around tourism; some businesses may be operated only during the high season. During the low season, year-round residents will notice that the city is a substantially quieter place to live.

Seniors make up 52.86% of Palm Beach's population, making it a popular place to retire. Because of the prominence of the retirement community, Palm 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.

In addition, Palm Beach is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates." Urban sophisticates are educated, wealthy, executives and professionals, who have urbane tastes in books, food, and travel, whether they actually live in a big city, or choose to reside in a small town. In big or medium-sized cities, urban sophisticates tend to frequent art institutions such as opera, symphonies, ballet, live theatre, and museums.

The town is also nautical, which means that parts of Palm Beach are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and tidal rivers. Quite often, nautical areas such as these attract visitors and locals who come to enjoy the scenery and various waterfront activities.

Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Palm Beach spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 18.35 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the town are less than they would otherwise be.

Being a small town, Palm Beach does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.

Palm Beach Information and Demographics

Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Palm Beach. 53.56% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 14.96%.

The per capita income in Palm Beach in 2000 was $109,219, which is wealthy relative to Florida and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $436,876 for a family of four. However, Palm Beach contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

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

In addition, Palm Beach has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (15.44%).

The languages spoken by people in Palm Beach are diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in Palm Beach is English. Other important languages spoken here include French, Spanish, and German.