Merritt Island vs Palm Bay

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

Merritt Island 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 34,718 in Merritt Island). Merritt Island has the higher median household income ($91,020 vs $67,521 in Palm Bay). Merritt Island has the higher median home value ($379,700 vs $248,000 in Palm Bay).

Population, income & housing

	Merritt Island	Palm Bay
Population	34,718	125,273
Median age	49.8 yrs	41.3 yrs
Median household income	$91,020	$67,521
Median home value	$379,700	$248,000
Median gross rent	$1,348	$1,487
Housing units	16,816	48,826
Homeownership rate	81.0%	79.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	41.8%	22.6%
Unemployment rate	4.2%	5.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Merritt Island	Palm Bay
Population	36,532 → 34,718 (-5.0%)	111,997 → 125,273 (+11.9%)
Median household income	$64,865 → $91,020 (+40.3%)	$51,408 → $67,521 (+31.3%)
Median home value	$264,600 → $379,700 (+43.5%)	$155,200 → $248,000 (+59.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,019 → $1,348 (+32.3%)	$1,059 → $1,487 (+40.4%)

Merritt Island

Population

36,53234,718

Median household income

$64,865$91,020

Median home value

$264,600$379,700

Median gross rent

$1,019$1,348

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)

	Merritt Island	Palm Bay
Under 5	4.3%	5.4%
5 to 17	13.4%	16.8%
18 to 24	6.4%	7.1%
25 to 34	9.4%	12.8%
35 to 44	10.1%	13.0%
45 to 54	13.1%	11.0%
55 to 64	17.4%	15.1%
65 to 74	13.9%	10.9%
75 and over	12.2%	8.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Merritt Island	Palm Bay
White (non-Hispanic)	83.0%	53.2%
Black or African American	2.2%	17.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	3.2%	2.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.6%	1.0%
Two or more races	3.7%	6.4%
Hispanic or Latino	7.2%	19.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Merritt Island	Palm Bay
No high school diploma	4.3%	9.2%
High school graduate	21.3%	32.6%
Some college or associate's	32.6%	35.6%
Bachelor's degree	24.7%	14.4%
Graduate or professional degree	17.1%	8.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Merritt Island	Palm Bay
Drove alone	75.3%	76.5%
Carpooled	4.8%	10.3%
Public transit	0.2%	1.0%
Walked	0.3%	0.6%
Bicycle	0.4%	0.8%
Worked from home	17.4%	9.4%
Other means	1.7%	1.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Merritt Island	Palm Bay
1-unit, detached	78.3%	83.0%
1-unit, attached	1.4%	2.0%
2 to 4 units	2.6%	3.0%
5 to 19 units	6.3%	5.4%
20 or more units	8.5%	2.9%
Mobile home & other	2.9%	3.7%

Poverty & households

	Merritt Island	Palm Bay
Poverty rate	7.4%	11.5%
Average household size	2.47	2.80
Mean commute (minutes)	25	28
Median year structure built	1973	1992