Households and families — Sebastian, Florida

Sebastian has 11,586 households in U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates, up from 11,179 households counted in the 2020 Census.

The ACS 2020-2024 table S1101 for Sebastian city puts the total at 11,586 households, of which 7,170 are families and 4,416 are nonfamily households. The 2020 Census table P16 counted 11,179 Sebastian households on April 1, 2020, a full count rather than a sample. The table below compares Sebastian with the Indian River County and Florida versions of S1101 and the matching county and state DP02 profiles.

A third figure circulates for Sebastian. The ACS 2019-2023 profile for Sebastian estimated 11,512 households and 2.24 persons per household. That period overlaps 2020-2024 by four years, and the Census Bureau guidance on comparing ACS data says not to compare overlapping datasets, so 11,512 and 11,586 describe nearly the same Sebastian years rather than a change. The Sebastian QuickFacts page now shows the ACS 2020-2024 figures, 11,586 households and 2.26 persons per household.

The average Sebastian household holds 2.26 people and the average family 2.82, both smaller than the Indian River County and Florida averages in ACS 2020-2024.

Size depends sharply on household type. Sebastian married-couple households average 2.76 people. Family households headed by a woman with no spouse present average 3.72 people, and those headed by a man with no spouse present average 3.58; in Sebastian, 40.1 percent of the first group and 51.6 percent of the second include someone under 18. Nonfamily households average 1.18 people, since 85.6 percent of them are one person living alone.

The small average is the arithmetic of an older city. In Sebastian, 6,561 households, or 56.6 percent, include at least one person 65 or older, and most married households have no children at home: only 970 of the 5,790 Sebastian married-couple households have children of the householder under 18. Across Sebastian, 90.8 percent of households live in single-unit homes.

Half of Sebastian households are married couples, about a quarter are women without a spouse or partner present, and about a sixth are men without a spouse or partner present, in ACS 2020-2024.

The DP02 profile for Sebastian counts 5,790 married-couple households (50.0 percent), 798 cohabiting-couple households (6.9 percent), 2,026 households headed by a man with no spouse or partner present (17.5 percent) and 2,972 headed by a woman with no spouse or partner present (25.7 percent). Most of those last two groups are people living alone rather than single parents: among Sebastian women householders with no spouse or partner, 2,227 live alone and 214 have children of their own under 18.

The 2020 count sorts households into family and nonfamily types, while DP02 sorts them by the householder's spouse or partner status, so the categories line up only roughly. Even so, it shows the same shape for Sebastian: 5,929 of 11,179 households were married-couple families, a little over half, and 3,592 were nonfamily households. The county P16 table shows Indian River County with 35,390 married-couple families out of 71,177 households.

About one Sebastian householder in three lives alone (32.6 percent), and 20.4 percent of all Sebastian households are a person 65 or older living alone, in ACS 2020-2024.

Women make up the larger share. DP02 counts 2,227 Sebastian women householders living alone, 1,614 of them 65 or older, against 1,554 men living alone, 755 of them 65 or older. Older women living alone therefore account for 13.9 percent of all Sebastian households, more than double the 6.5 percent share for older men living alone.

The Sebastian living-alone rate matches Indian River County closely (32.1 percent) and runs above Florida (28.3 percent). The older-adult share is where Sebastian and the county part from the state: 20.4 percent of Sebastian households are a person 65 or older living alone, compared with 13.2 percent statewide. The 2020 Census counted 2,873 Sebastian householders living alone, which is 25.7 percent of 11,179 households by simple division; the ACS share is higher, though the two sources measure in different ways.

Only 15.0 percent of Sebastian households, about 1,742, include anyone under 18, while 56.6 percent include someone 65 or older, in ACS 2020-2024.

Sebastian's share of households with children sits below Indian River County (18.0 percent) and far below Florida (26.5 percent). Some 1,419 Sebastian households have the householder's own children under 18. Of those, 52.6 percent have children aged 6 to 17 only, and 28.3 percent have children under 6 only.

Grandparents living with grandchildren are few. DP02 counts 484 Sebastian grandparents living with their own grandchildren under 18, and 65 grandparents responsible for those grandchildren. Households with someone 60 or older make up 69.8 percent of all Sebastian households, so Sebastian households with children are a small minority.

Sebastian added about 1,800 households between the ACS 2015-2019 and 2020-2024 periods while average household size fell from 2.56 to 2.26 people.

These two ACS periods do not overlap, so the Census Bureau treats them as comparable. The ACS 2015-2019 S1101 for Sebastian estimated 9,782 households, against 11,586 in 2020-2024; subtracting gives 1,804 more households. The 2015-2019 DP02 profile put married-couple families at 59.0 percent of Sebastian households, against 50.0 percent of households in 2020-2024.

Nearly every line moved toward smaller, older Sebastian households: more people living alone, more of them over 65, fewer households with children and fewer people per home. The household count grew by about 18 percent (1,804 divided by 9,782), and the share of Sebastian households that are married couples fell by nine points.

Sebastian households, at 2.26 people on average, are far smaller than Fellsmere households at 3.90 and slightly larger than Vero Beach households at 2.24, in ACS 2020-2024.

The Fellsmere S1101 table shows the opposite household pattern from Sebastian: more than half of Fellsmere households include a child. The Vero Lake Estates CDP table, for the Vero Lake Estates census-designated place, also shows larger and younger households, with 30.1 percent including someone under 18. The Roseland CDP table is the one neighbor older than Sebastian, with 70.1 percent of households including someone 65 or older, and the Vero Beach city table has the highest living-alone share of the group at 37.5 percent.