Sarasota County · County Health Rankings 2015-2025
The Wealth Gap, and What It Means for Sarasota's Children
Eleven years of the University of Wisconsin's County Health Rankings, every Florida workbook from 2015 through 2025, extracted into our own database and charted here. Two questions: how far apart are Sarasota's rich and poor, and how are its children doing — by income, by race, by health, and by school.
Part 1 — The Wealth Gap
The dollar gap between rich and poor households widened by $41,000
A household at Sarasota's 80th income percentile out-earned one at the 20th by $74,713 in 2015. By 2025 that gap was $116,188 — both groups gained, but the top gained $55,758 while the bottom gained $14,283.
As a ratio, inequality slowly narrowed — and stayed below Florida's
The 80th/20th income ratio fell from 4.37 to 4.19 over eleven years, and Sarasota has been less unequal than the state every single year. The widening dollar gap in chart 1 and the narrowing ratio here are both true: the bottom grew faster in percent, the top grew faster in dollars.
Median household income rose 61% — and stayed ahead of the state
Sarasota's median household went from $48,717 to $78,218. The county's lead over the statewide median widened from about $2,700 in 2015 to nearly $5,000 in 2025, peaking above $9,000 in 2023-24.
The racial income gap: Black households earn 68 cents on the White dollar
Sarasota's White median household income reached $82,585 in 2025; Hispanic households $76,725; Black households $55,874. Every group gained since 2020, and the Black-White gap narrowed from 62% to 68% — but Black household income actually fell slightly in the 2025 release while every other group kept rising.
Part 2 — The Children
Child poverty fell by a third — but ticked up in the newest data
One in five Sarasota children lived in poverty in 2015; by 2024 it was closer to one in nine. The 2025 release moved back up to 13.4% while the state kept falling — the first release where the gap between Sarasota and Florida narrowed from both directions.
One in three Black children in Sarasota lives in poverty
Black child poverty fell from a staggering 55% in 2019 to 28% in 2024 — then rebounded to 33.4% in the 2025 release, more than three times the White rate of 9.9%. Hispanic child poverty shows the cleanest improvement, from 30% to 13%.
Nearly half of Sarasota students still qualify for subsidized lunch
Free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility — the school system's own poverty proxy — tells a less rosy story than the census poverty rate: 47.9% of Sarasota students qualified in the 2025 release, exactly where it stood in 2019, and the number has been climbing again for three straight releases.
Child mortality: Sarasota's advantage is shrinking
Sarasota has always beaten the state on child deaths per 100,000 — but its rate has drifted the wrong way, from 37 in 2016 to 46.7 in 2024, while Florida's stayed roughly flat. The gap between county and state, once 17 points, is now about 10.
Uninsured children: Sarasota runs above the state in bad years
Florida's uninsured-children rate settled around 7% after 2018. Sarasota's bounces — 10.4% in 2021, 10.6% in 2024 — meaning in its worst years roughly one in ten Sarasota children has no health insurance, notably worse than the state.
Disconnected youth: a quiet reversal since 2023
Teens and young adults neither working nor in school. Sarasota improved steadily to 3.1% in 2023 — less than half the state rate — then reversed to 5.1% by 2025, a two-thirds increase in two releases while Florida kept slowly improving.
Part 3 — The Schools
High school graduation climbed from 78% to about 90%
Sarasota's graduation rate has beaten the state in ten of eleven releases. Both improved dramatically over the decade; Sarasota's 2023 peak of 92% eased to 89% in the newest data, mirroring a statewide dip.
Sarasota schools are funded above adequacy — Florida's are $2,751 short
CHR's school-funding-adequacy measure estimates dollars per pupil above or below what's needed for average outcomes. Sarasota is one of the few Florida counties in surplus every year measured, while the state as a whole runs thousands of dollars per pupil short.
The 2025 scoreboard
Reading (grade level)
3.47
Florida: 3.17
Math (grade level)
3.52
Florida: 3.28
Adults w/ high school
94.4%
Florida: 89.6%
School segregation index
0.09
Florida: 0.22
Child care cost burden
27.5% of income
Florida: 25.9% of income
Kids in single-parent homes
22.8%
Florida: 27.4%
Source: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (UW Population Health Institute), Florida workbooks 2015-2025.
The bottom line
Sarasota's schools are the county's clearest strength: funded above adequacy while the state runs short, above-grade-level reading and math, and a graduation rate near 90%. Overall child poverty fell by a third over the decade.
But the gains are not evenly shared. The dollar gap between rich and poor households widened by $41,000. A Black child in Sarasota is more than three times as likely to live in poverty as a White child, and Black household income fell in the newest release while every other group rose. And three child-wellbeing measures have quietly reversed since 2023: child mortality, uninsured children, and disconnected youth are all moving the wrong way while the state holds steady.