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You have to be the owner of SunnyD, a lottery winner, or have a crazy good, high paying, job to live in our richest cities in Florida for 2020. If you're looking for safe cities and neighborhoods, amazing schools, large green spaces, good food, high-end shopping, with paycheck to match, you can stop your search. There are cities in the Sunshine State that have all of these amenities, and more, because they cater to the Florida "one percenters".
How does one get their hand on one of these cities? Well, a couple of things have to fall into place for you. First off, you need to find a job that pays at least $100,000/year. Might we suggest a job in healthcare in our number one richest city. Whether it's performing plastic surgery or just taking care of the snowbirds, we're sure you'll stay busy and wealthy. Did we mention that Florida does not have state income tax and that their corporate tax is super low? So creating your own business in Longboat Key might be the 'key' to your Florida success. Monetary wealth does make a city rich, but there are cities on our list that are both rich in the dollar as well as rich in amenities.
Cities like Parkland and Gulf Breeze have a park-like atmosphere, and cities like Lighthouse Point and Coral Gables have beaches that rival the Caribbean. More importantly, these cities have staycation written all over them. This means that you and your money can stay put so that you can afford to live in these fancy cities. In all seriousness, our richest cities in Florida have some of the best schools in the country. Blue ribbon elementary schools, gold star high schools with focus in STEM, the Arts, and Aviation, and colleges like Palm Beach College, are delivering the next generation of millionaires one student at a time.
To take a closer look at the wealthiest cities in Florida for 2020, have your chef make your favorite meal and your driver deliver you to your favorite beach, and read on.
At the end of the day, here's the set of the 10 richest places in Florida for 2020:
- Longboat Key (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Palm Beach (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Belle Isle (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Parkland (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Pinecrest (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Palm Beach Gardens (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Cooper City (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Key Biscayne (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Jacksonville Beach (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Lighthouse Point (Photos | Homes For Sale)
To narrow down the richest cities in Florida, we looked at several factors: poverty rate, median household income, and unemployment rate. The cities also had to have a population of at least 5,000.
There were 219 said wealthy cities in the largest state in the southeast. What was the richest city in Florida? Without further adieu, the wealthiest city in Florida for 2020 is Palm Beach.
So, if you care about living where there are great jobs and wealthy people, take a look the list below. The Sunshine State is calling.
Rich people not your cup of tea? Feel free to check out some more reading about Florida:
The 10 Richest Cities In Florida For 2020
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Population: 7,233
Rank Last Year: 2 (Up 1)
Median Income: $104,825
Unemployment Rate: 2.6%
Poverty Rate: 3.9%
More on Longboat Key: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Longboat Key is a town in Manatee and Sarasota counties along the central west coast of the U.S. state of Florida, located on and coterminous with the barrier island of the same name. Longboat Key is south of Anna Maria Island, between Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. It is almost equally divided between Manatee and Sarasota counties. The town of Longboat Key was incorporated in 1955 and is part of the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice Metropolitan Statistical Area.
/10
Population: 8,667
Rank Last Year: 1 (Down 1)
Median Income: $133,026
Unemployment Rate: 2.3%
Poverty Rate: 5.2%
More on Palm Beach: Real Estate | Data | Photos
The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth. In 2000, Palm Beach had a year-round population of 10,468, with an estimated seasonal population of 30,000.
/10
Population: 6,865
Rank Last Year: 3 (No Change)
Median Income: $85,873
Unemployment Rate: 0.8%
Poverty Rate: 5.6%
More on Belle Isle: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Belle Isle is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,988 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford Metropolitan Statistical Area.
/10
Population: 30,471
Rank Last Year: 5 (Up 1)
Median Income: $146,094
Unemployment Rate: 4.0%
Poverty Rate: 4.1%
More on Parkland: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Parkland is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States.
Parkland is known for its zoning laws, which are designed to protect the "park-like" character of the city. Initially, there were no stores or traffic lights in Parkland, though this began to change in the mid 1990s and early 2000s with the additions of large neighborhood developments including Heron Bay and Parkland Isles.
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Population: 19,446
Rank Last Year: 4 (Down 1)
Median Income: $153,417
Unemployment Rate: 4.0%
Poverty Rate: 5.5%
More on Pinecrest: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Pinecrest is an affluent suburban village in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States of America. The population was 18,223 as of the census of 2010. Pinecrest is governed by a five-member Village Council and operates under the Council-Manager form of government. 33156, the zip code that encompasses all of the village, has been consistently ranked as one of the most expensive in the United States.
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Population: 54,528
Rank Last Year: 9 (Up 3)
Median Income: $80,426
Unemployment Rate: 2.7%
Poverty Rate: 6.4%
More on Palm Beach Gardens: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Palm Beach Gardens is a city in Palm Beach County in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 48,452. The city has a number of gated communities.
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Population: 35,376
Rank Last Year: 13 (Up 6)
Median Income: $102,174
Unemployment Rate: 4.1%
Poverty Rate: 4.9%
More on Cooper City: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Cooper City is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. The city is named for Morris Cooper, who founded the community in 1959.
/10
Population: 13,054
Rank Last Year: 8 (No Change)
Median Income: $133,958
Unemployment Rate: 4.4%
Poverty Rate: 4.7%
More on Key Biscayne: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Key Biscayne is an island town in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The population was 12,344 at the 2010 census.
/10
Population: 23,203
Rank Last Year: 14 (Up 5)
Median Income: $80,026
Unemployment Rate: 3.1%
Poverty Rate: 6.9%
More on Jacksonville Beach: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Jacksonville Beach is a coastal resort city in Duval County, Florida, United States. It was incorporated on May 22, 1907 as Pablo Beach, and would later change its name to Jacksonville Beach in 1925. The city is part of group of communities collectively referred to as the Jacksonville Beaches. These communities include Mayport, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, and Ponte Vedra Beach. When the city of Jacksonville consolidated with Duval County in 1968, Jacksonville Beach, together with Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, and Baldwin, voted to retain their own municipal governments. As a result, citizens of Jacksonville Beach are also eligible to vote in mayoral election for the City of Jacksonville. As of the 2010 census, Jacksonville Beach had a total population of 21,362.
This place is very nice I love the housing and I love the beaches as well.
I love the houses and the beach also.
/10
Population: 11,109
Rank Last Year: 6 (Down 4)
Median Income: $81,857
Unemployment Rate: 3.6%
Poverty Rate: 6.2%
More on Lighthouse Point: Real Estate | Data | Photos
How We Determined The Richest Places In Florida For 2020
The first thing that comes to most people's minds when they think about determining the richest places is to simply identify personal incomes. After all, rich people have really high salaries.
However, we don't believe that one statistic wholly encompasses what it means to be one of the "richest places". So we looked at this set of criteria from the newly released 2014-2018 American Community Survey:
- Poverty Level
- Median Household Income
- Unemployment Rate
Median household income is the most digestible way to understand how rich a place really is. The unemployment rate tries to capture the prospects for more people to become rich. If more people are employed, the richer the future looks.
After we collected the data for all 219 places with more than 5,000 people in Florida, we ranked each place from 1 to 219 for each of the criteria, with 1 being the richest.
We then averaged all the rankings for a place into a "Rich Score" with the place having the lowest overall Rich Score, Longboat Key, crowned the "Richest City In Florida For 2020". You can download the data here.
You can learn more about the top ten below or skip to the end to see the rankings for all 219 places.
There You Have It - The Wealthiest Places In Florida For 2020
Like we said earlier, when we set out to identify the richest places in Florida, we weren't sure what we'd encounter, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in Florida.
When you look at the data, the cities and places mentioned above meet the criteria for being at the very top of the income ladder for everyone that lives there.
If you're curious enough, here are the poorest cities in Florida, according to data:
Poorest: Belle Glade
2nd Poorest: Pahokee
3rd Poorest: Opa-locka
For more Florida reading, check out:
