According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,557 square miles, of which, 1,018 square miles of it is land and 539 square miles of it is water, primarily the Atlantic Ocean, the St. John's River and the Indian River Lagoon. The county is larger in area than Samoa and nearly the same size, and population, as Cape Verde. It is one third again as large as Rhode Island.
Located half-way between Jacksonville, Florida and Miami, Brevard County is an extra-long county, extending over 70 miles from north to south, but only a handful of miles inland from the seacoast at any point. In marshes in the western part of this county is the source of the St. Johns River.
The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway along the eastern edge of Brevard County is the
major waterway route in Brevard County.
Brevard County is the sole county in the Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Brevard County contains the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. the Canaveral National Seashore, the St. Johns National Wildlife Refuge, and the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge. Brevard works together with the federal and state government to help preserve these wetlands, coastal areas and controlling pollution.
In 2005, Inc. Magazine voted the Space Coast as the best place to do business in Florida and sixth in the country.
In 2004, Brevard County ranked 13th out of 318 largest counties in the US for increase in the number of jobs.
Port Canaveral is the world's busiest cruise port. It is served by seven cruise lines. They have six major cruise terminals. There is 750,000 SF of covered freight storage capacity. It handled 4 million tons of cargo in 2004. The port boosts Brevard's economy by $500 million annually.
The county ranked 17th for per capita income, out of Florida's 67 counties.
American City Business Journals rated Brevard 7th for quality of life out of 67.
For 2004, Brevard County moved from 70 to 31 out of the top 200 metropolitan areas "Best Performing." This improvement was driven mainly by job growth.
Two hospitals were among the top five private employers in the county.
A long term concern has been the probable re-assignment of thousands of space coast workers when the shuttle is discontinued in 2010.
Two locally headquartered builders, Mercedes and Holiday were among the top 30 in the nation. Mercedes had $1 billion in sales in 2004.
The Cocoa Redevelopment Center has worked on programs to improve housing in the city's older areas.
23% of Brevard County is agricultural-usable for citrus, raising cattle or horses. Cattle ranches include the Deseret and Duda Ranches; citrus growers include Victory Groves and Harvey's Indian River Groves.
The county ranked 21 out of 24 Florida counties in the shipment of gift fruit.
The median income for a household in the county was $37,308, and the median income for a family was $46,463. Males had a median income of $35,097 versus $25,526 for females. The per capita income for the county was $19,233. About 8.30% of families and 12.30% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.20% of those under age 18 and 8.10% of those age 65 or over.
Towns and Cities in Brevard County
Cape Canaveral
Cocoa
Cocoa Beach
Indialantic
Indian Harbour Beach
Malabar
Melbourne
Melbourne Beach
Melbourne Village
Orlando
Palm Bay
Palm Shores
Rockledge
Satellite Beach
Sebastian
Titusville
West Melbourne
