Merritt Island, Florida
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1949 and the latest in 1979. It stands in the Space Center census division. It lies in ZIP code area 32780. It stands on Merritt Island. The Survey maps it on the Orsino quadrangle. 34,518 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1949 to 1979The same ground, surveyed 30 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


On record in Merritt Island
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
Dr. George E. Hill Houselisted 1994
Population over time
2 figuresMerritt Island fell from 34,743 to 34,518 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 34,743 | |
| 2020 | 34,518 | -225 (-1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 12 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1949 USGS Orsino quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1951 USGS Orsino quadrangle1:24000
- 1955 USGS Orlando quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Orlando quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Orlando quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Orlando quadrangle1:250000
- 1976 USGS Orsino quadrangle1:24000
- 1979 USGS Titusville quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
163 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 163 fires within 5 miles of Merritt Island between 1992 and 2020, burning about 18,773 acres in total. 138 started naturally. 5 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Natural | 138 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 9 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 5 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 September 2010 | Natural | 5.0 acres | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | BULLFROG |
| 6 September 2000 | Natural | under an acre | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | GROUP 4 |
| 5 September 2010 | Natural | under an acre | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | LONE TREE |
| 5 September 2010 | Natural | under an acre | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | LONE TREE II |
| 5 September 2000 | Natural | under an acre | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | B AVENUE |
| 30 September 2011 | Natural | under an acre | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | TWO PALMS |
| 3 September 1997 | Natural | under an acre | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | IND6STEAVE |
| 3 September 1997 | Natural | under an acre | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | IND5STEAVE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Merritt Island: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Limestone, General. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F&W Mines - Hwy 520 Mine | Limestone, General | Producer | Limestone |
Storms near this place
1 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Merritt Island in 1 storm report in 1994: 1 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Merritt Island | $5,000 | Thunderstorm winds moving from the east off of the Banana River blew down power lines and poles and destroyed two boat dock sheds. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Merritt Island | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q991010 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 294625. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.







