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 2022. 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 2022, have your chef make your favorite meal and your driver deliver you to your favorite beach, and read on.
Here are the 10 richest places in Florida for 2022:
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 221 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 2022 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 2022
1. Lake Mary
/10
Population: 16,987
Rank Last Year: 4 (Up 3)
Median Income: $92,441
Unemployment Rate: 2.4%
Poverty Rate: 4.2%
More on Lake Mary: Real Estate | Photos
2. Palm Beach
/10
Population: 8,776
Rank Last Year: 1 (Down 1)
Median Income: $169,003
Unemployment Rate: 3.3%
Poverty Rate: 3.9%
More on Palm Beach: Real Estate | Photos
3. Longboat Key
/10
Population: 7,299
Rank Last Year: 2 (Down 1)
Median Income: $108,015
Unemployment Rate: 3.0%
Poverty Rate: 3.7%
More on Longboat Key: Real Estate | Photos
4. Jacksonville Beach
/10
Population: 23,562
Rank Last Year: 11 (Up 7)
Median Income: $96,629
Unemployment Rate: 2.5%
Poverty Rate: 6.2%
More on Jacksonville Beach: Real Estate | Photos
5. Atlantic Beach
/10
Population: 13,831
Rank Last Year: 8 (Up 3)
Median Income: $84,830
Unemployment Rate: 2.9%
Poverty Rate: 4.3%
More on Atlantic Beach: Real Estate
6. Parkland
/10
Population: 32,878
Rank Last Year: 6 (No Change)
Median Income: $159,692
Unemployment Rate: 3.9%
Poverty Rate: 3.6%
More on Parkland: Real Estate | Photos
7. Palm Beach Gardens
/10
Population: 56,979
Rank Last Year: 9 (Up 2)
Median Income: $89,736
Unemployment Rate: 2.9%
Poverty Rate: 5.6%
More on Palm Beach Gardens: Real Estate | Photos
8. Naples
/10
Population: 21,750
Rank Last Year: 18 (Up 10)
Median Income: $118,141
Unemployment Rate: 2.5%
Poverty Rate: 7.6%
More on Naples: Real Estate | Photos
9. Neptune Beach
/10
Population: 7,214
Rank Last Year: 36 (Up 27)
Median Income: $95,819
Unemployment Rate: 3.0%
Poverty Rate: 6.6%
More on Neptune Beach: Real Estate | Photos
10. North Palm Beach
/10
Population: 13,090
Rank Last Year: 23 (Up 13)
Median Income: $71,830
Unemployment Rate: 1.7%
Poverty Rate: 4.9%
More on North Palm Beach: Real Estate | Photos
Methodology: How We Determined The Richest Places In Florida For 2022
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 2016-2020 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 221 places with more than 5,000 people in Florida, we ranked each place from 1 to 221 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, Lake Mary, crowned the “Richest City In Florida For 2022”. 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 221 places.
Summary: The Wealthiest Places In Florida For 2022
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: Pahokee
2nd Poorest: Belle Glade
3rd Poorest: Opa-locka
For more Florida reading, check out:
