About Key West

The best way to understand our congregation is to understand the mystique that is Key West — because we reflect all that is our island home

Community Demographics

There really is such a thing as the Key West state of mind. Whether you were born here, first met Key West in 1970 or just a few weeks ago, those who love the island will never stray far. That Key West mystique is captured in every Jimmy Buffett song, in every step along the “Duval Crawl,” in every child who giggles joyfully in the Truman Waterfront Park’s splash pad, in every sunset sail or afternoon at the sand bar. That island dream brings hundreds of thousands to our tiny four-mile-by-two-mile island surrounded by the crystal blue waters of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.

We are closer to Havana than to Miami. We are connected to the mainland by 150-plus-miles of electrical cords and water lines. We live in a place where when one says, “come visit,” everyone does.

Key West is not “the Keys,” although if you haven’t driven the Overseas Highway from end-to-end you might not understand the demographic and cultural differences that separate Key West from its island neighbors to the east. We are a city of 26,000 permanent residents and we welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. Tourism is the revenue stream that keeps folks employed and that makes us crazy when we can’t get from home to church in 10 minutes because of that scooter in front of us.

But…. We are not Disney World’s Key West. What folks often forget is that we are a real city with real people who work for a living, take their kids to school, argue politics, complain about taxes and too many cars and not enough parking spaces and health care that too frequently means an overnight trip to the mainland. We worry about what happens when we need assisted living. We scramble to pay the every-increasing rent and many of us work two or three jobs to make ends meet. We worry about climate change and sea-level rise in ways our off-island friends can’t imagine. Those are real things for us; we see the results every time it rains during King Tide time and the Peace Covenant parking lot looks more a lake than a lot.

And yet… We love our town. We love our community. And, we love our church. There is simply no better place – or church – on earth to call home.

Here are the highlights about Key West:

• The population likely will continue to decrease over the next decade. The Key West population estimate in July 2022 was 25,597, down 3.2 percent since the April 1, 2020 Census.
• We’re somewhat low on the religiosity index. Not a lot of us attend services on a regular basis nor do we have a church home. Sixty-seven percent of us say we have no religious affiliation. Those who do are primarily Catholic. Mainstream protestant adherents make up 3.9 percent of the Key West religious community.
• We are older than the rest of Florida. Our median age is 44.2 and we’re projected to get older overall unless medical care exodus reduces the 65-plus age group. We have significantly fewer children under 18 than the state average (14 percent compared to 20 percent). Forty-three percent of us are over age 50.
• There are more men than women. About 47 percent of our island population are women.
• We are less likely to live in a family household. Fifty percent of us are married couples compared to the state at 57. Thirty-two percent of us live in non-family households, almost twice the rest of the state. There are 2.32 persons per household compared to the state at 2.62.
• Fewer than half of us live in own-occupied housing. About 46 percent of us own and live in our homes. The remainder of out housing is rental, including vacation rentals. That compares to 66 percent owner-occupied nationally and in Florida.
• Our housing is expensive. The media value of owner-occupied housing units is $728,500, more than double that of the state at $248,700.
• We tend to have more household income. The median household income is $75,638 and is 25 precent higher than the state at $61,777.
• We tend to be more highly educated. In all categories from high school to some college through graduate school, we are higher than the state averages.
• Our poverty level is slightly less than the state average. About 12 percent of the population falls at or below below the poverty level compared to 13.1 percent in all of Florida.
• We are predominantly white-non-Hispanic. About 58.9 percent of Key West is White-non-Hispanic. (The Villages, by contrast, is about 97 precent White-non-Hispanic.) Hispanic/Latino makes up about 24.7 percent and almost all of that number is of Cuban descent. African-Americans make up about 13.5 percent and that includes Blacks of Caribbean descent.
• We work. Sixty-six percent are employed in the civilian labor force compared to the state average of 57.9 percent. Almost four percent are military, compare to the state at 0.37 percent. And we work primarily in entertainment services, like tourist attractions, retail and food preparation and service. The rest of us are in office administration, managerial roles and professional specialties.