Sebastian, Florida Demographics Guide

Sebastian's demographics section has 13 guides, and the table below pairs each common question with its headline ACS 2020-2024 figure and the guide that explains it.

Every number in the table describes the City of Sebastian inside its city limits and comes from the same Census Bureau release, so the rows can be read against one another. The sections below group them into age, background, income and work, and homes, with Indian River County and nearby places for comparison.

Sebastian had 26,262 residents and a median age of 58.2 in the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates, older than Indian River County as a whole and far older than Florida.

Sebastian counted 9,665 residents aged 65 and over, 36.8 percent of the city, and 3,313 children under 18 (Census Bureau, Sebastian DP05). Indian River County, with 166,936 residents, had a median age of 55.3 and a 65 and over share of 34.8 percent (Census Bureau, Indian River County DP05). Statewide the median age was 42.6 and 21.3 percent of Floridians were 65 or older (Census Bureau, Florida DP05).

Places a few miles apart around Sebastian differ sharply. Micco has a median age of 68.2, ten years above Sebastian, while Fellsmere has a median age of 32.0 and fewer than one resident in ten aged 65 or older. Vero Lake Estates sits between them at 43.1. A Sebastian figure therefore says little about Fellsmere or Vero Lake Estates, and the reverse is also true.

Age shapes most other Sebastian numbers on this page: the low share of residents in the labor force, the small households, the high rate of homeownership and the disability rate all track the large 65 and over population. The households and families guide shows how many Sebastian residents live alone, and the seasonal residents guide covers homes held for part of the year.

About four in five Sebastian residents, 80.1 percent, are non-Hispanic White in the ACS 2020-2024 estimates, and 13.3 percent, or 3,492 people, are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Non-Hispanic Black residents make up 2.1 percent of Sebastian and non-Hispanic Asian residents 1.8 percent (Census Bureau, DP05). The Hispanic share is close to the Indian River County figure of 13.9 percent (county DP05) and about half the Florida share of 27.4 percent (Florida DP05). The race and ethnicity guide breaks the Hispanic population down by origin.

At home, 87.7 percent of Sebastian residents aged 5 and over speak only English, 12.3 percent speak another language and 8.8 percent speak Spanish (Census Bureau, DP02). The languages and ancestry guide adds the ancestries Sebastian residents report most often.

Sebastian has 2,233 civilian veterans, 9.7 percent of its civilian adults (DP02), against 9.6 percent in Indian River County (county DP02). The county's Veterans Services division keeps a Sebastian office at 1235 Main Street, phone (772) 226-1145, open Monday through Friday by appointment, with walk-ins on Thursdays for questions that take 30 minutes or less (Indian River County Veterans Services). The veterans guide covers service eras and memorials in Sebastian.

Newcomers are a steady part of Sebastian: in the year before the survey, 6.9 percent of residents had lived in a different U.S. county and 4.3 percent in a different state (DP02). The migration and new residents guide follows where Sebastian arrivals come from and how that has shifted since the 2015-2019 period.

Sebastian's median household income was $69,409 in the ACS 2020-2024 estimates, below the Indian River County median of $73,491 and the Florida median of $74,568.

In the same survey 10.1 percent of Sebastian residents had incomes below the poverty line (Census Bureau, DP03), compared with 11.1 percent in Indian River County (county DP03) and 12.6 percent in Florida (Florida DP03). The household income guide shows how Sebastian incomes spread across brackets, and the poverty guide shows which age groups and family types fall below the line.

Only 47.5 percent of Sebastian residents aged 16 and over were in the labor force, a direct result of the city's age profile, and the ACS unemployment rate for the city's civilian labor force was 7.2 percent (DP03). That rate is a five-year survey average for Sebastian alone, which is why it differs from the monthly rates published for the Indian River County metro area on the economy pages.

Among employed Sebastian residents, 45.8 percent work in management, business, science and arts occupations, and 27.1 percent of adults 25 and over hold a bachelor's degree or higher (DP03, DP02). The average trip to work is 31.1 minutes, against 23.8 minutes countywide (county DP03). The occupations guide and the commuting guide cover where Sebastian residents work and how long they spend getting there.

Sebastian's 11,586 households average 2.26 people, a little below the Indian River County average of 2.33, and 85.2 percent of occupied homes in Sebastian are lived in by their owners.

The city had 12,976 housing units, a median owner-occupied home value of $317,000 and a homeowner vacancy rate of 1.7 percent (Census Bureau, DP04). Of the 1,390 Sebastian housing units counted as vacant, 843 were held for seasonal, recreational or occasional use (Census Bureau, B25004).

Nine Sebastian households in ten, 90.7 percent, had a broadband internet subscription; 19.2 percent of residents reported a disability; and 12.3 percent had no health insurance (DP02, DP03). The internet access, disability and health insurance coverage guides break each figure down by age. The county library system's North Indian River County Library is at 1001 Sebastian Boulevard, phone (772) 400-6360 (Indian River County Library System).

Every Sebastian figure on this page comes from the ACS 2020-2024 5-year release, which pools survey answers from a sample of households rather than counting every resident.

Older pages may still quote Sebastian figures from earlier five-year releases. The Census Bureau advises against comparing overlapping five-year datasets (Census Bureau guidance), so a gap between the 2020-2024 figures and the 2019-2023 release is not a measured change in Sebastian; a valid trend needs a non-overlapping period such as 2015-2019.

For a Sebastian population count, the Census Bureau recommends the 2020 Census or its Population Estimates Program rather than the ACS, and advises using the ACS for population characteristics such as percents, means, medians and rates (comparing ACS data). The bureau also publishes a margin of error with every ACS estimate, and for small Sebastian groups, such as children below the poverty line or residents who speak English less than very well, that margin can be large next to the figure itself.

ZIP code tools are a common source of confusion. ZIP code tabulation area 32958, the main Sebastian ZIP, had 30,023 residents in the same 2020-2024 release (Census Bureau, B01003), about 3,800 more than the city, so any ZIP-based figure describes a larger area than the City of Sebastian.