Vero Beach, Florida Demographics Guide

Vero Beach has eight deep demographics guides, and the table below matches the question each one answers with the headline Census figure behind it.

Every Vero Beach number on this hub describes the incorporated City of Vero Beach unless the county is named. The guides take each topic further: the population history guide runs the decennial counts back a century, the comparison guide sets the city against its Indian River County neighbors, and the ZIP codes guide explains why a 32963 or 32960 address can sit outside the city limits.

The 2020 Census counted 16,354 people in Vero Beach, and the state estimate for April 1, 2025 is 16,800, a gain of 446 residents in five years.

Ten years before that count, the 2010 Census recorded 15,220 people in Vero Beach (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 Census), so the city added 1,134 residents across the 2010s to reach the April 1, 2020 total of 16,354 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census).

Growth since then has been slow by Treasure Coast standards. The Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research lists Vero Beach at 16,800 for April 1, 2025, while Sebastian, the larger city to the north, reached 27,367 after adding 2,313 people, and Indian River County as a whole reached 173,013 (Florida EDR, April 1, 2025 estimates). On those figures Vero Beach holds a little under one tenth of the county population.

The ACS 2020-2024 five-year estimate puts Vero Beach at 17,042 residents (ACS DP05, Vero Beach city). The Census Bureau advises using the 2020 Census or the Population Estimates Program for headcounts and the ACS for percents, medians and rates (Census Bureau, Comparing ACS Data), so the 2020 count is the figure to quote for the size of Vero Beach, with the 2025 state estimate as the newest official update.

Vero Beach is slightly younger than Indian River County overall, with a median age of 52.5 against 55.3 for the county in the ACS 2020-2024 estimates.

Residents aged 65 and over make up 28.9 percent of Vero Beach, compared with 34.8 percent across Indian River County (ACS DP05, Vero Beach; ACS DP05, Indian River County). Children under 18 are 13.7 percent of city residents and 15.0 percent of county residents. Vero Beach also has a notable oldest group: people 85 and over are 4.4 percent of the city population.

Women outnumber men in Vero Beach. Females are 54.6 percent of city residents, and the ACS sex ratio is 83.2 males per 100 females (ACS DP05). In 45.4 percent of Vero Beach households at least one person is 65 or older, against 54.2 percent countywide (ACS DP02, Vero Beach; ACS DP02, Indian River County). The ZIP codes guide compares age across the six Vero Beach ZIP codes, including 32963 on the barrier island.

Most Vero Beach residents are non-Hispanic White, 71.7 percent in the ACS 2020-2024 estimates, with 11.6 percent Hispanic or Latino of any race and 9.2 percent non-Hispanic Black.

Those Vero Beach shares come from the same data profile (ACS DP05, Vero Beach). For Indian River County as a whole the Hispanic or Latino share is 13.9 percent (ACS DP05, Indian River County). Gifford is a separate census designated place in Indian River County (Census Bureau 2020 place codes), so its residents are not part of the Vero Beach city figures; the race and ethnicity guide traces those counts back to 2000.

Foreign-born residents are 13.0 percent of Vero Beach, above the Indian River County share of 10.0 percent (ACS DP02, Vero Beach; ACS DP02, Indian River County). A language other than English is spoken at home by 13.4 percent of Vero Beach residents aged 5 and over. Only 31.6 percent of Vero Beach residents were born in Florida, while 53.4 percent were born in another state (ACS DP02, Vero Beach); the foreign-born residents guide breaks the birthplaces down further, including residents born in Canada.

Vero Beach has 7,484 households averaging 2.24 people, smaller than the Indian River County average of 2.33, and only 64.4 percent of occupied homes are owner occupied, against 80.1 percent countywide.

Single-person households are common in Vero Beach: women living alone head 21.3 percent of households and men living alone 16.2 percent (ACS DP02, Vero Beach). The county household average of 2.33 comes from the same release (ACS DP02, Indian River County). Among Vero Beach adults 25 and over, 39.1 percent hold a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with 33.8 percent across Indian River County, and civilian veterans are 8.4 percent of the civilian population 18 and over against 9.6 percent in the county.

The Vero Beach housing stock is less suburban than the county's. Single-family detached homes are 46.0 percent of the city's 10,375 housing units, against 65.9 percent countywide, and the ACS puts the median owner-occupied home value at $391,900 and the median gross rent at $1,221 (ACS DP04, Vero Beach; ACS DP04, Indian River County). Median household income is $69,758 in the city and $73,491 in the county, while per capita income runs higher in the city at $58,674 (ACS DP03, Vero Beach; ACS DP03, Indian River County).

A local reading of the vacancy figure matters here. The ACS counts 27.9 percent of Vero Beach housing units as vacant, against 18.1 percent for the county (ACS DP04). Most of those Vero Beach units are not on the market: of 2,891 vacant units, 1,888 are held for seasonal, recreational or occasional use, while 386 are for rent and 107 are for sale only (ACS table B25004, Vero Beach). Part-time homes therefore account for close to two thirds of the vacancy figure, so the city's vacancy rate says more about second homes than about empty housing.

Vero Beach ACS figures are five-year averages from a sample, so they should be compared only with non-overlapping releases and quoted with care for small groups.

The Census Bureau says overlapping five-year datasets should not be compared (Census Bureau, Comparing ACS Data). The ACS 2020-2024 Vero Beach figures used on this hub should therefore not be set against the 2019-2023 release as if the difference were a one-year change; a fair trend for Vero Beach compares 2015-2019 with 2020-2024, or the 2010 and 2020 Census counts. The ACS 2020-2024 release is the newest five-year release for the city as of October 15, 2026.

The Census Bureau publishes a margin of error for every ACS estimate (Comparing ACS Data), and those margins matter for a city of this size. The poverty rate for all Vero Beach residents is 16.1 percent, against 11.1 percent countywide (ACS DP03, Vero Beach; ACS DP03, Indian River County). The geography also matters: the Census Bureau treats Vero Beach South, Florida Ridge and the West Vero Corridor as separate census designated places (Census Bureau 2020 place codes), so a household with a Vero Beach mailing address in one of those areas is outside the city figures. The Vero Beach vs. Indian River County guide and the metro area guide show how those neighboring places compare.