Disability — Palm Bay, Florida

About one in six Palm Bay residents has a disability: 20,584 people, or 16.0 percent of the city's civilian noninstitutionalized population, in the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates.

The Palm Bay figures come from the Census Bureau table S1810 for Palm Bay city, the county column from the same table for Brevard County and the state column from the Florida version. Palm Bay sits close to the county rate of 16.3 percent and well above the Florida rate of 13.7 percent. The Brevard County total of 101,771 residents with a disability means Palm Bay holds about one in five of them (20,584 divided by 101,771 is 20.2 percent), in line with its share of the county base (129,016 of 625,754, or 20.6 percent).

The Palm Bay split by sex runs the opposite way from the county. Women in Palm Bay report a disability more often than men, 16.9 percent against 15.0 percent, while across Brevard County men lead, 16.8 percent against 15.8 percent. The count for Palm Bay is 11,317 women and 9,267 men with a disability. Because the table covers the civilian noninstitutionalized population, the Palm Bay base of 129,016 is smaller than a full head count of the city.

Walking and climbing stairs is the most common difficulty in Palm Bay, reported by 8.6 percent of residents (10,465 people), followed by cognitive difficulty at 6.8 percent and independent living difficulty at 7.2 percent of adults.

The American Community Survey asks about six kinds of difficulty, and a Palm Bay resident can report more than one, so the six counts add up to more than the 20,584 total (ACS S1810, Palm Bay). Palm Bay matches Brevard County exactly on ambulatory, self-care and vision difficulty, and runs higher than the county on cognitive difficulty (6.8 percent against 6.2) and independent living difficulty (7.2 against 6.9), according to the Brevard County table.

Hearing difficulty is the one type where Palm Bay is lower than the county, at 4.1 percent against 4.9 percent. Of the 5,242 Palm Bay residents with a hearing difficulty, 3,423 are 65 or older, and the city is younger than the county: the same table counts 24,337 Palm Bay residents aged 65 and over out of 129,016, while Brevard County counts 152,338 out of 625,754.

Disability in Palm Bay climbs steeply with age, from 1.0 percent of children under 5 to 25.2 percent of residents aged 65 to 74 and 52.9 percent of those 75 and older (ACS 2020-2024).

Every Palm Bay age band from 5 upward has a higher disability rate than the same band statewide (ACS S1810, Florida). The widest gap is among the oldest Palm Bay residents: 5,393 of the 10,197 people aged 75 and over report a disability, a rate of 52.9 percent against 46.0 percent for Brevard County. For walking and stair climbing alone, 39.1 percent of Palm Bay residents aged 75 and over report a difficulty, compared with 30.3 percent across the county.

Older Palm Bay residents also report more need for help with daily routines. The self-care difficulty rate for Palm Bay residents 65 and older is 9.8 percent, against 6.8 percent in Brevard County and 6.4 percent in Florida, and the independent living difficulty rate for the same Palm Bay age group is 14.1 percent. Among Palm Bay children, the most common type is cognitive difficulty, reported for 6.6 percent of residents under 18 (1,442 children), above the 5.6 percent county rate.

Palm Bay residents with a disability are far less likely to hold a job: 19.1 percent of those aged 16 and over are employed, against 65.0 percent of Palm Bay residents without a disability (ACS 2020-2024, table S1811).

The Census table S1811 for Palm Bay counts 18,946 residents aged 16 and over with a disability, of whom 78.1 percent are not in the labor force. The Palm Bay employment rate for this group, 19.1 percent, trails both the Brevard County rate of 23.4 percent and the Florida rate of 23.9 percent. Age plays into it: adding the two oldest bands in table S1810, 3,567 plus 5,393, gives 8,960 Palm Bay residents aged 65 and over with a disability, more than four in ten of the city total of 20,584.

Palm Bay workers with a disability who do have earnings bring home a median of $31,480 in 2024 dollars, close to the county figure of $32,144 and $5,996 below the $37,476 median for Palm Bay residents without a disability. Poverty is more common among Palm Bay residents with a disability, at 15.1 percent against 9.9 percent, and 14.8 percent of Palm Bay adults 25 and over with a disability did not finish high school. Remote work is more common for this group in Palm Bay: 14.7 percent of workers with a disability worked from home, against 10.6 percent of Palm Bay workers without one.

One in three Palm Bay veterans reports a disability: 3,335 of the city's civilian veterans aged 18 and over, or 33.6 percent, against 17.1 percent of Palm Bay adults who never served (ACS 2020-2024, table S2101).

The Census veterans table S2101 for Palm Bay counts 9,975 civilian veterans, 9.9 percent of Palm Bay residents aged 18 and over. Their 33.6 percent disability rate is higher than the 30.7 percent for veterans across Brevard County in the Brevard County S2101 table and the 31.0 percent for Florida veterans in the Florida S2101 table. Across all Palm Bay adults, the disability rate is 18.7 percent, the same as the Brevard County adult rate.

Property tax exemptions tied to disability are administered by the Brevard County Property Appraiser. The Property Appraiser exemption list includes a $5,000 Disability Exemption, a $5,000 Blind Person Exemption, a Total and Permanent Disability Exemption for civilians, and a Service Connected Total and Permanent Disability Exemption and $5,000 Disabled Veteran Exemption for veterans.

The City of Palm Bay handles disability access requests through its ADA Coordinator at 120 Malabar Road S.E., and Space Coast Area Transit runs ADA Paratransit service for Palm Bay riders who cannot use the regular bus.

The city's ADA notice commits the City of Palm Bay, under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, not to discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities in its services, programs, activities or facilities. Aids such as qualified sign language interpreters and documents in Braille are available on request. A request for an aid or a policy modification goes to the ADA Coordinator, 120 Malabar Road S.E., (321) 952-3421, no later than 48 hours before the scheduled event. The city states it will not charge a surcharge to cover the cost of these aids. The coordinator role sits with the Palm Bay Human Resources director, and TTY callers can reach the city through the Federal Information Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339. Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Palm Bay Human Resources ADA page.

For travel, Space Coast Area Transit lists four routes named for Palm Bay: 22 South Palm Bay, 23 West Palm Bay, 25 Melbourne/Palm Bay and 27 East Palm Bay. Its ADA Paratransit Service provides door-to-door trips within three-quarters of a mile of the agency's Fixed Route service areas, during the same hours as the Fixed Route buses. Fares are $1.50 per ride or $15.00 for a 10-ride pass, and processing of an application takes up to 21 business days. A personal care attendant rides free, and up to two companions may come along for a fare. Riders registered for ADA Paratransit service also qualify for the agency's reduced bus fare of $0.75.