Residents Love Living in Okaloosa County, FL

In Okaloosa County, enjoy the world’s best beaches, vibrant small towns and a welcoming hand.

By Laura Hill on January 8, 2024

Mike Haytack

Pick a warm, sunny spot and add to it a turquoise Gulf, visitors from around the world, the country’s largest military presence and welcoming small cities and towns, and you’ll wind up with something special. Just ask the people who live in Okaloosa County, FL. 

This unique corner of Northwest Florida enjoys an enviable quality of life, where residents and visitors alike can choose the buzz and excitement of beachside activity, vibrant downtown Main Streets and plenty of wide-open spaces to enjoy nature. 

“We like to think there is something for everyone here: good jobs, public safety, excellent schools,” says Jeff Peters, Fort Walton Beach city manager. “We take pride in how we serve people. The most important thing we do is provide a community where people want to live, work and play.” 

Mike Haytack

Okaloosa County, FL, is Warm and Welcoming 

While Okaloosa’s fabled beaches may be its best-known attribute, its people may be its most valuable resource. It’s a culturally diverse place, where families from everywhere have settled, drawn by the promise of employment and a better lifestyle, or a continuing beach vacation they just couldn’t quit. 

An ethnic and racial mix is part of the “secret sauce” that makes this such a welcoming community, as is the distinctive influence of the area’s two military bases, Hurlburt Field and Eglin Air Force Base. 

Black or African American people make up nearly 11% and Hispanics 11% of the population in the county of 216,000 residents. 

“Our demographic is going down in age (37.6, lower than the Florida and U.S. averages), largely because when there is a base realignment a lot of young people are staying here,” says Tim Bolduc, Crestview city manager, referring to Eglin Air Force Base, which is in the county. “We appreciate that. We love our country, we love our military. We see different missions moving this way, so we have built a lot of our community around serving the military. Young service men and women feel comfortable here.” 

When they stay, transitioning service members find the local economy offers a wide range of career and job opportunities. The area is home to a growing hospitality industry that employs both seasonal and year-round workers. Health care, retail, education and defense sectors also represent a large part of the economic picture. And in a smaller, more tightly knit community where networking is simpler, jobs may be easier to find. 

Mike Haytack

Intentional Growth in Okaloosa County, FL

Residents also find a lot to love in outdoor Okaloosa, from 24 miles of dazzling sandy beaches offering 27 public access points to nearby state parks. Municipal parks like Mary Esther’s Oak Tree Nature Park add to the calmer pace of life. Fort Walton Beach is in the midst of a $5 million renovation of Fort Walton Landing Park, which will include an amphitheater stage, restrooms, parking, a new seawall and walkways. 

For the county’s two largest municipalities, striking a balance between growth and maintaining an attractive quality of life can be an ongoing challenge. Crestview’s Bolduc is looking at continuing growth he predicts will mushroom the city’s 29,000 population by 50% over the next 10 years. 

“Predominantly, the main challenges are the overall infrastructure needs – not just roads and sewage treatment and stormwater, but firefighters, police, permit technicians. At the same time, we’re fighting to keep the identity we have chosen. If we want to be a small Southern town that supports our country and our military, we have to be intentional.” 

And in Fort Walton Beach, serving both local residents and the tens of thousands of visitors who come to town each year has also meant major infrastructure projects, the most impactful of which is undoubtedly the new $171 million Brooks Bridge being built from the mainland to Okaloosa Island. While commutes in Okaloosa are generally manageable, the long-awaited structure should untie the seasonal long waits on Fort Walton Beach’s main roads when it is completed in five years. 

“The bridge is the biggest project we have had in 59 years, and when all is said and done, it will provide the downtown area we have all talked about for many years,” Peters says. “Our goal is to make a community where our kids want to come back and live here and raise their own families. That’s something as a community we have bought into.”