Melbourne vs Palm Bay

A side-by-side comparison of Melbourne and Palm Bay: population, income, housing, and more.

Melbourne and Palm Bay are places in Florida. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Palm Bay has the higher population (125,273 vs 85,718 in Melbourne). Palm Bay has the higher median household income ($67,521 vs $64,504 in Melbourne). Melbourne has the higher median home value ($272,900 vs $248,000 in Palm Bay).

Population, income & housing

	Melbourne	Palm Bay
Population	85,718	125,273
Median age	42.3 yrs	41.3 yrs
Median household income	$64,504	$67,521
Median home value	$272,900	$248,000
Median gross rent	$1,411	$1,487
Housing units	40,709	48,826
Homeownership rate	60.3%	79.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	33.3%	22.6%
Unemployment rate	4.4%	5.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Melbourne	Palm Bay
Population	81,468 → 85,718 (+5.2%)	111,997 → 125,273 (+11.9%)
Median household income	$48,673 → $64,504 (+32.5%)	$51,408 → $67,521 (+31.3%)
Median home value	$169,000 → $272,900 (+61.5%)	$155,200 → $248,000 (+59.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,030 → $1,411 (+37.0%)	$1,059 → $1,487 (+40.4%)

Melbourne

Population

81,46885,718

Median household income

$48,673$64,504

Median home value

$169,000$272,900

Median gross rent

$1,030$1,411

Palm Bay

Population

111,997125,273

Median household income

$51,408$67,521

Median home value

$155,200$248,000

Median gross rent

$1,059$1,487

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Melbourne	Palm Bay
Under 5	4.5%	5.4%
5 to 17	13.3%	16.8%
18 to 24	9.7%	7.1%
25 to 34	14.2%	12.8%
35 to 44	11.1%	13.0%
45 to 54	10.9%	11.0%
55 to 64	13.7%	15.1%
65 to 74	12.5%	10.9%
75 and over	10.1%	8.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Melbourne	Palm Bay
White (non-Hispanic)	70.2%	53.2%
Black or African American	9.6%	17.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	3.2%	2.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	1.0%
Two or more races	4.8%	6.4%
Hispanic or Latino	11.8%	19.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Melbourne	Palm Bay
No high school diploma	7.1%	9.2%
High school graduate	25.9%	32.6%
Some college or associate's	33.7%	35.6%
Bachelor's degree	21.2%	14.4%
Graduate or professional degree	12.0%	8.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Melbourne	Palm Bay
Drove alone	73.6%	76.5%
Carpooled	7.4%	10.3%
Public transit	1.3%	1.0%
Walked	2.7%	0.6%
Bicycle	0.5%	0.8%
Worked from home	13.1%	9.4%
Other means	1.4%	1.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Melbourne	Palm Bay
1-unit, detached	57.4%	83.0%
1-unit, attached	5.7%	2.0%
2 to 4 units	7.4%	3.0%
5 to 19 units	17.4%	5.4%
20 or more units	8.1%	2.9%
Mobile home & other	4.1%	3.7%

Poverty & households

	Melbourne	Palm Bay
Poverty rate	14.9%	11.5%
Average household size	2.28	2.80
Mean commute (minutes)	22	28
Median year structure built	1984	1992