Hillsborough County vs Palm Beach County

A side-by-side comparison of Hillsborough County and Palm Beach County: population, income, housing, and more.

Hillsborough County and Palm Beach County are counties in Florida. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Palm Beach County has the higher population (1,507,453 vs 1,489,634 in Hillsborough County). Palm Beach County has the higher median household income ($81,115 vs $75,011 in Hillsborough County). Palm Beach County has the higher median home value ($407,300 vs $333,300 in Hillsborough County).

Population, income & housing

	Hillsborough County	Palm Beach County
Population	1,489,634	1,507,453
Median age	37.8 yrs	45.4 yrs
Median household income	$75,011	$81,115
Median home value	$333,300	$407,300
Median gross rent	$1,543	$1,818
Housing units	618,220	713,855
Homeownership rate	61.1%	69.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	37.2%	39.6%
Unemployment rate	4.5%	5.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Hillsborough County	Palm Beach County
Population	1,422,278 → 1,489,634 (+4.7%)	1,465,027 → 1,507,453 (+2.9%)
Median household income	$58,884 → $75,011 (+27.4%)	$63,299 → $81,115 (+28.1%)
Median home value	$216,300 → $333,300 (+54.1%)	$283,600 → $407,300 (+43.6%)
Median gross rent	$1,142 → $1,543 (+35.1%)	$1,398 → $1,818 (+30.0%)

Hillsborough County

Population

1,422,2781,489,634

Median household income

$58,884$75,011

Median home value

$216,300$333,300

Median gross rent

$1,142$1,543

Palm Beach County

Population

1,465,0271,507,453

Median household income

$63,299$81,115

Median home value

$283,600$407,300

Median gross rent

$1,398$1,818

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Hillsborough County	Palm Beach County
Under 5	5.8%	4.9%
5 to 17	16.1%	14.0%
18 to 24	9.1%	7.4%
25 to 34	14.9%	11.5%
35 to 44	14.1%	11.8%
45 to 54	13.1%	12.3%
55 to 64	12.2%	13.5%
65 to 74	8.9%	12.0%
75 and over	5.9%	12.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Hillsborough County	Palm Beach County
White (non-Hispanic)	45.8%	50.8%
Black or African American	15.6%	18.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	4.3%	2.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.7%	0.8%
Two or more races	3.7%	3.7%
Hispanic or Latino	29.7%	23.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Hillsborough County	Palm Beach County
No high school diploma	10.4%	10.9%
High school graduate	25.4%	22.8%
Some college or associate's	27.0%	26.8%
Bachelor's degree	23.1%	24.0%
Graduate or professional degree	14.0%	15.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Hillsborough County	Palm Beach County
Drove alone	68.9%	71.4%
Carpooled	8.6%	9.6%
Public transit	0.8%	1.4%
Walked	1.3%	1.2%
Bicycle	0.5%	0.4%
Worked from home	18.3%	13.8%
Other means	1.6%	2.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Hillsborough County	Palm Beach County
1-unit, detached	57.0%	45.7%
1-unit, attached	7.6%	11.3%
2 to 4 units	5.6%	8.9%
5 to 19 units	12.0%	12.2%
20 or more units	11.2%	19.0%
Mobile home & other	6.7%	2.8%

Poverty & households

	Hillsborough County	Palm Beach County
Poverty rate	13.2%	11.1%
Average household size	2.56	2.48
Mean commute (minutes)	29	26
Median year structure built	1990	1986