Whether it’s the beaches or the zero state income tax, the uber wealthy love Palm Beach County: It lays claim to 58 billionaires, according to Forbes.
- West Palm Beach incorporated in 1894, making it the oldest municipality in the county.
Tourism is one of the largest job sectors in the county, accounting for more than 85,000 jobs. Tourism has an economic impact of more than $10.3 billion in the local economy and generates more than $84 million in bed tax revenue.
Palm Beach County is the primary region in Florida—and the nation—for the production of sugarcane and sweet corn. As a result, Florida ranks first in the nation for both the production and value of fresh, market sweet corn. Palm Beach County is the leading grower of sugarcane in the nation, supplying 50 percent of the sugar produced in the United States.
The School District of Palm Beach County is the largest employer in Palm Beach County with more than 22,801 employees, including 13,003 teachers, serving 189,000 students. The district is the fifth largest in Florida and the tenth largest in the country, with a 95.9 percent graduation rate and a $5.6 billion budget.
Palm Beach County’s 47 miles of beaches give access to coastal waters scattered with natural coral formations that are part of the Florida Reef Tract, the only living barrier coral reef in the continental United States and the third largest in the world. The creation of 160 “artificial reefs”—made of limestone, concrete, and sunken ships that become habitats for algae, corals, and other marine life—provides additional areas for fishing, diving, and snorkeling, ensuring the natural reefs are protected from overuse.
The first—and last—recorded snowfall in Palm Beach County was in 1977.
Palm Beach County’s Parks and Recreation Department manages more than 110 parks and recreational facilities spanning 8,500 acres with a rich variety of amenities to explore.
The South Florida Fair in West Palm Beach, which opened in 1912, is Palm Beach County’s oldest and largest annual event.
The first modern-day IBM PC was secretly worked on in Boca Raton under the name “Project Acorn.” The computer was crowned “Machine of the Year” by Time magazine in 1983, overtaking the original cover that was planned to be Apple’s Steve Jobs as “Man of the Year.”
A U.S. Army fort built in Jupiter in 1838 is believed to be the first permanent non-Indian settlement in the area. The fort was followed by the first civilian residents, who started maintaining the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse in 1860.
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