City safety & data profile
Fort Walton BeachFL
Fort Walton Beach, FL is a 22K-resident city in Okaloosa County with a median household income of $68,538.
Okaloosa County, Florida. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Fort Walton Beach, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Fort Walton Beach has a population larger than 48% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $321,800, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-04
- 22K
- Population (place)
- Bottom 49%
- By size
- $68,538
- Median income (place)
- $321,800
- Median home (place)
- 13.3%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Fort Walton Beach
Fort Walton Beach posts a median household income higher than 35% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Fort Walton Beach area.
- Bottom 36%
- by median income, US cities
- 1
- hospital in & near Fort Walton Beach
Where Fort Walton Beach income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$68,538 Bottom 35% higher than 35% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year
Largest cities in FL
Population among 310 FL places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.
- Jacksonville
Jacksonville, FL
1,009,833 residents
- Miami
Miami, FL
487,014 residents
- Tampa
Tampa, FL
414,547 residents
- Orlando 334,854
Orlando, FL
334,854 residents
- St. Petersburg 257,083
St. Petersburg, FL
257,083 residents
- Hialeah 237,069
Hialeah, FL
237,069 residents
- Tallahassee 201,731
Tallahassee, FL
201,731 residents
- Fort Lauderd… 183,146
Fort Lauderdale, FL
183,146 residents
- Cape Coral 175,229
Cape Coral, FL
175,229 residents
- Pembroke Pines 166,611
Pembroke Pines, FL
166,611 residents
What this shows Jacksonville is the largest FL city on this list; Pinecrest leads median income.
Highest median incomes in FL
Median household income among the same 310-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Pinecrest
Pinecrest, FL
$206,417 median
- Parkland
Parkland, FL
$198,669 median
- Lake Butler
Lake Butler, FL
$182,500 median
- Key Biscayne
Key Biscayne, FL
$181,505 median
- Keystone
Keystone, FL
$161,056 median
- Naples
Naples, FL
$153,182 median
- Miami Shores
Miami Shores, FL
$144,050 median
- Palmetto Bay
Palmetto Bay, FL
$142,447 median
- Fruit Cove
Fruit Cove, FL
$141,863 median
- Weston
Weston, FL
$139,825 median
What this shows Pinecrest posts the highest place-level median income in FL; Jacksonville is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Fort Walton Beach, FL beyond the headline numbers
Fort Walton Beach sits inside Okaloosa County, Florida, at roughly 30.42°N, -86.62°W. Population 21,817, $68,538 median household income. Median home value $321,800, median rent $1,307. Poverty rate 13.3%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
1 hospital in/around Fort Walton Beach, 3/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.
Poverty in Fort Walton Beach, FL stands at 13.3%, above the midpoint of reporting cities. A median income can look comfortable while a share this size sits well beneath it, which is why the two figures belong together.
A median home in Fort Walton Beach runs about 4.7 times median household income, above the midpoint. Multiples in this range usually mean buyers are arriving from outside the local wage base.
Remote work covers 8.4% of Fort Walton Beach workers, under the midpoint for reporting cities.
Among the CDC measures on this page, coronary heart disease departs furthest from its peer median: 7.2% in Fort Walton Beach, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,757 cities reporting that measure.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Fort Walton Beach from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Okaloosa County): Fort Walton Beach's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 13.3% +7% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 3.2% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 29.7% |
| Work From Home | 8.4% |
| Public Transit | 0.4% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospitals 1 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Fort Walton Beach?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Fort Walton Beach right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet FL-FORT-WALTON-BEACH · Fort Walton Beach
Fort Walton Beach: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.
- FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
- LEAD-NONE Feed idle
- DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Fort Walton Beach; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Florida state hubs · Methodology
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Fort Walton Beach, FL? ▼
What is the median household income in Fort Walton Beach? ▼
What is the median home value in Fort Walton Beach? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Fort Walton Beach? ▼
How many hospitals are in Fort Walton Beach? ▼
What is the median age in Fort Walton Beach? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Fort Walton Beach, both outside Florida so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside FL (13.3% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside FL ($68,538 here).
Compare Fort Walton Beach with another city
Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Fort Walton Beach's profile
Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.
- Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Fort Walton Beach area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
- Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
- Compare Fort Walton Beach against Florida peers on any ranking lens. Explore Florida
Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.
Data Sources
All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Okaloosa County) where that is the smallest published unit.
Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.