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is a city in Indian River County, Florida, USA. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 estimates, the city had a population of 16,939. It is the county seat of Indian River County. Vero Beach is a Principal City of the Sebastian–Vero Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is home to 130,100 people.
Vero Beach may be best known as the location of Dodgertown, where the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team held their spring training camp from 1948 until 2008 when it moved to a new facility in Glendale, Arizona. The stadium was also the home to the minor league Vero Beach Devil Rays; however, in August 2008 the franchise was sold to the Ripken Baseball Group and will not return to Vero Beach for the 2009 season.
Piper Aircraft Inc. builds aircraft here. Major industries include citrus fruit packing and tourism.
As of the census of 2000, there were 17,705 people, 8,516 households, and 4,777 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,598.9/mi² (617.5/km²). There were 10,286 housing units at an average density of 928.9/mi² (358.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 92.73% White, 3.42% African American, 0.20% Native American, 1.24% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 1.40% from other races, and 0.99% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.79% of the population.
There were 8,516 households out of which 17.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.4% were married couples living together, 8.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.9% were non-families. 36.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.02 and the average family size was 2.59.
In the city the population was spread out with 16.0% under the age of 18, 7.0% from 18 to 24, 23.6% from 25 to 44, 24.1% from 45 to 64, and 29.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 48 years. For every 100 females there were 92.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $38,427, and the median income for a family was $50,260. Males had a median income of $31,217 versus $24,022 for females. The per capita income for the city was $30,940. About 6.4% of families and 9.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.6% of those under age 18 and 4.5% of those age 65 or over.
Vero Beach is home to more retired Fortune 500 CEO's than any other location in the world and has the fourth highest concentration of wealthy households in the country. Most of these residents live on the exclusive barrier island that is divided from the mainland by the Indian River.