Neptune Beach is a beachfront city east of Jacksonville in Duval County, Florida, United States. When the majority of Duval County communities consolidated with Jacksonville in 1968, Neptune Beach, along with Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach and Baldwin remained quasi-independent. Like those other municipalities, it maintains its own municipal government but its residents vote in the Jacksonville mayoral election and are represented on the Jacksonville city council. The population was 7,217 at the 2020 census. Neptune Beach is the smallest of the Jacksonville Beaches communities. it is part of the Jacksonville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
thumb|left|Looking north along 1st St. at Neptune Beach in 1979.
Neptune Beach was originally part of Jacksonville Beach. Through its development, the part of Jacksonville Beach north of 20th Avenue North was sparsely populated, with a brick road (First Street) connecting the more populated southern area with Atlantic Beach. The name "Neptune Beach" originated in 1922 with Dan G. Wheeler, one of the few residents. Wheeler had a home at what is now One Ocean Hotel (now in Atlantic Beach), and had to walk all the way home from Mayport each evening after taking the Florida East Coast Railway train home from work in Jacksonville. A friend who worked for the railroad informed Wheeler that if he had a station, the train would have to stop for him, so Wheeler built his own train station near his home and named it Neptune.
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|footnote=U.S. Decennial Census<br>2020 Census
The top five reported ancestries (people were allowed to report up to two ancestries, thus the figures will generally add to more than 100%) were English (94.2%), Spanish (5.0%), Indo-European (0.5%), Asian and Pacific Islander (0.0%), and Other (0.4%).
Racial and ethnic composition
{| class="wikitable"
|+Neptune Beach, Florida – racial and ethnic composition<br><small></small>
! Race / ethnicity <small>(NH = non-Hispanic)</small>
! Pop. 2000
! Pop. 2010
!
! % 2000
! % 2010
!
|-
| White alone (NH)
| 6,878
| 6,464
| style='background: #ffffe6; |6,302
| 94.61%
| 91.86%
| style='background: #ffffe6; |87.32%
|-
| Black or African American alone (NH)
| 53
| 84
| style='background: #ffffe6; |73
| 0.73%
| 1.19%
| style='background: #ffffe6; |1.01%
|-
| Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)
| 27
| 23
| style='background: #ffffe6; |19
| 0.37%
| 0.33%
| style='background: #ffffe6; |0.26%
|-
| Asian alone (NH)
| 75
| 58
| style='background: #ffffe6; |85
| 1.03%
| 0.82%
| style='background: #ffffe6; |1.18%
|-
| Pacific Islander alone (NH)
| 4
| 1
| style='background: #ffffe6; |7
| 0.06%
| 0.01%
| style='background: #ffffe6; |0.10%
|-
| Other race alone (NH)
| 3
| 14
| style='background: #ffffe6; |29
| 0.04%
| 0.20%
| style='background: #ffffe6; |0.40%
|-
| Mixed race or multiracial (NH)
| 78
| 115
| style='background: #ffffe6; |320
| 1.07%
| 1.63%
| style='background: #ffffe6; |4.43%
|-
| Hispanic or Latino (any race)
| 152
| 278
| style='background: #ffffe6; |382
| 2.09%
| 3.95%
| style='background: #ffffe6; |5.29%
|-
| Total
| 7,270
| 7,037
| style='background: #ffffe6; |7,217
| 100.00%
| 100.00%
| style='background: #ffffe6; |100.00%
|}
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, there were 7,217 people, 3,237 households, and 1,973 families residing in the city. The median age was 43.0 years. 17.2% of residents were under the age of 18 and 18.7% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 97.7 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 94.9 males age 18 and over.
100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.
Of households in Neptune Beach, 24.9% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 48.2% were married-couple households, 19.8% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 25.8% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 28.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.