City comparison
Palm Beach Gardens, FL is about 175 miles (275 km) from St. Petersburg, FL in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 200 miles, or about 3 h 30 min behind the wheel at highway speeds.
Driving distance is a rough estimate (great-circle × 1.25); driving time assumes a 60 mph blended average. Real trips run 10–20% longer with stops.
A direct flight from Palm Beach Gardens, FL to St. Petersburg, FL takes about 20 min, covering roughly 175 miles in a straight line. Connecting itineraries with a layover typically add 1–3 hours.
Block-to-block estimate at ~500 mph cruise, including taxi, climb, and descent — what an airline would publish, not pure airborne time.
Palm Beach Gardens, FL is on Eastern Time and St. Petersburg, FL is on Central Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Palm Beach Gardens, it's 11 a.m. in St. Petersburg, which puts Palm Beach Gardens 1 hours ahead.
Standard-time offsets. Daylight saving applies in both cities for most of the year (exceptions: Hawaii and most of Arizona), and the gap between the two stays the same.
St. Petersburg has a population of 259,343, vs 59,088 in Palm Beach Gardens — about 4.4× larger by population. By land area, St. Petersburg covers about 62 sq mi vs 59 sq mi for Palm Beach Gardens.
Population from US Census ACS. Land area from the Census Gazetteer (city proper, excluding inland water).
Cost indices by category, with the US city average (100) marked.
Index: 100 = US city average. Lower is more affordable.
Side-by-side costs, salaries, and sub-category indices.
| Metric | Palm Beach Gardens | St. Petersburg | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $2,053/mo | $1,410/mo | 45.6% higher in Palm Beach Gardens |
| Median home value | $482,900 | $289,000 | 67.1% higher in Palm Beach Gardens |
| Median household income | $106,544 | $70,333 | 51.5% higher in Palm Beach Gardens |
| Groceries index | 103.1 | 95.8 | 7.7% higher in Palm Beach Gardens |
| Utilities index | 97.0 | 89.1 | 8.9% higher in Palm Beach Gardens |
| Transportation index | 108.3 | 97.8 | 10.7% higher in Palm Beach Gardens |
| Healthcare index | 107.8 | 97.3 | 10.8% higher in Palm Beach Gardens |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Palm Beach Gardens, you'd need $85,254 in St. Petersburg to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
St. Petersburg, FL is about 14.7% cheaper overall than Palm Beach Gardens, FL, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 25% higher in Palm Beach Gardens than in St. Petersburg. If you earn $80,000 in Palm Beach Gardens, you'd need about $68,203 in St. Petersburg to keep the same standard of living.