Race and ethnicity — Sebastian, Florida

About 80 percent of Sebastian residents are non-Hispanic White and 13.3 percent are Hispanic or Latino of any race, in U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates.

Sebastian city had 26,262 residents in the ACS 2020-2024 Data Profile DP05 for Sebastian. Of them, 21,043 are non-Hispanic White alone, which the table rounds to 80.1 percent. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race number 3,492, or 13.3 percent. Non-Hispanic Black residents number 543, non-Hispanic Asian residents 466 and non-Hispanic residents of two or more races 500. The table below sets those Sebastian shares beside the same table for Indian River County and the Florida table.

Two gaps stand out. Sebastian's Hispanic share sits close to the Indian River County figure, but its non-Hispanic Black share of 2.1 percent is well under the county's 7.7 percent and the state's 14.6 percent. Florida as a whole is barely half non-Hispanic White, while Sebastian is four fifths. The Asian share in Sebastian, 1.8 percent, is a little above the county share.

Sebastian's Hispanic population rose from 2,229 in the 2020 Census to an estimated 3,492 in ACS 2020-2024, while the non-Hispanic Black count fell from 1,143 to an estimated 543.

The 2020 Census DHC table P9 for Sebastian city counted 25,054 people on April 1, 2020: 2,229 Hispanic or Latino, 20,376 non-Hispanic White alone, 1,143 non-Hispanic Black alone, 337 non-Hispanic Asian alone and 854 non-Hispanic residents of two or more races. The 2020 redistricting table P2 carries the same Sebastian counts, which are the official numbers used to draw districts. Dividing 2,229 by 25,054 puts the 2020 Hispanic share at 8.9 percent; 20,376 of 25,054 puts the non-Hispanic White share at 81.3 percent.

The cleanest comparison over time sets the ACS 2015-2019 estimate for Sebastian, 1,447 Hispanic residents or 5.8 percent, against the 2020-2024 estimate, because the two five-year periods do not overlap. The Census Bureau guidance on comparing ACS data says plainly: do not compare overlapping datasets. That rules out reading change from the ACS 2019-2023 estimate for Sebastian, which showed 9.8 percent Hispanic and 83.7 percent non-Hispanic White over an overlapping period. The Sebastian QuickFacts page now carries the ACS 2020-2024 figures, 13.3 percent Hispanic and 80.1 percent non-Hispanic White. Indian River County moved the same direction: its 2020 Census count was 20,832 Hispanic residents of 159,788, against 23,133 in the 2020-2024 estimate.

The drop in Sebastian's non-Hispanic Black estimate, from a counted 1,143 in 2020 to an estimated 543, comes from a sample survey with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.3 percentage points on the 2.1 percent share, so the size of that decline is uncertain. The earlier ACS 2015-2019 estimate, 1,200 people or 4.8 percent, was close to the 2020 count.

Puerto Rican residents are the largest single Hispanic origin group in Sebastian, at an estimated 926, followed by Cuban (795) and Mexican (665) residents, in ACS 2020-2024.

The Sebastian DP05 table also counts 1,106 residents as other Hispanic or Latino, a catchall line for every origin the table does not name separately. As shares of all Sebastian residents, Puerto Rican origin is 3.5 percent, Cuban 3.0 percent and Mexican 2.5 percent.

That order is different from the rest of Indian River County. Countywide, Mexican origin is the largest named group, with 8,294 residents or 5.0 percent of the county, against 4,466 Puerto Rican and 2,761 Cuban residents. Statewide the order flips again: Florida has 1,630,295 Cuban residents (7.3 percent), 1,245,819 Puerto Rican residents (5.6 percent) and 749,524 Mexican residents (3.3 percent). Sebastian's Hispanic population therefore looks more like the Puerto Rican and Cuban mix of the wider state than like the Indian River County pattern, where Mexican origin leads.

Most of Sebastian's 2,622 multiracial residents report White and Some Other Race, and most of them are Hispanic, so the 10.0 percent figure overlaps heavily with the Hispanic count.

Census tables report race two ways. Counted by race alone, regardless of Hispanic origin, Sebastian has 22,066 White alone residents (84.0 percent) and 2,622 residents of two or more races (10.0 percent). Of those 2,622, some 2,012 report White and Some Other Race, equal to 7.7 percent of the city. Once Hispanic residents are separated out, only 500 non-Hispanic Sebastian residents report two or more races, which is why the first table on this page shows 1.9 percent. Subtracting 500 from 2,622 leaves 2,122 multiracial Sebastian residents who are Hispanic.

The same pattern appears at larger scale: Indian River County counts 11.1 percent of residents as two or more races and Florida 19.4 percent. The Census Bureau, in an August 2021 analysis of the 2020 Census, said it expected the national rise in multiracial and Some Other Race counts was largely due to the improvements to the design of the two separate questions for race and ethnicity, data processing and coding. Its race topic page adds that the race response is based upon self-identification and that people of Hispanic origin may be of any race. For Sebastian, that means the Hispanic or Latino line is the more stable measure of the city's Hispanic population than any race line.

Sebastian's 13.3 percent Hispanic share falls between Roseland, at 1.3 percent, and Fellsmere, at 76.3 percent, in ACS 2020-2024 estimates for the north Indian River County places.

The Fellsmere city table counts 3,778 Hispanic residents out of 4,953, the highest share of any place in this group. The Vero Lake Estates CDP table, covering the unincorporated area southwest of the Sebastian city limits, shows 18.5 percent Hispanic and 6.8 percent non-Hispanic Black, both above Sebastian. The Roseland CDP table, for the Roseland census-designated place, shows 97.9 percent non-Hispanic White. The Vero Beach city table shows 11.6 percent Hispanic and 9.2 percent non-Hispanic Black. At 26,262 residents, Sebastian is the largest place in the table, ahead of Vero Beach at 17,042.

The ACS figures for Sebastian are sample estimates: the 3,492 Hispanic residents carry a margin of error of plus or minus 670 people, while the 2020 Census figures are full counts.

The Census Bureau publishes a margin of error (MOE) for every ACS estimate. For Sebastian in 2020-2024, the Hispanic share of 13.3 percent carries a margin of plus or minus 2.6 points, and the non-Hispanic White share of 80.1 percent carries plus or minus 2.9 points. Small groups are the least precise: a Sebastian line of a few hundred people can shift by a large fraction between releases, so this page quotes counts beside percentages.

For totals, the Census Bureau guidance recommends the 2020 Census or the Population Estimates Program over the ACS. That is why the 25,054 count from April 2020 remains the official Sebastian population base for redistricting, while the ACS 2020-2024 estimate of 26,262 is the better guide to the current mix of groups across the Sebastian Highlands, the riverfront along Indian River Drive and the rest of the city.