The area has been increasing in population since the late 19th century, with the incorporation of West Palm Beach in 1894 and after Henry Flagler extended the Florida East Coast Railway and built the Royal Poinciana Hotel, The Breakers, and Whitehall.

[7] In undeveloped (central and western) Palm Beach County there is significant tropical agricultural production, especially nurseries, truck crops (vegetables), and sugar cane.

[10] In 1513, Juan Ponce de León became the first European in modern-day Palm Beach County when he landed at the Jupiter Inlet.

[14] The county's oldest surviving structure, the Jupiter Lighthouse, was built in 1860, after receiving authorization to the land from President Franklin Pierce in 1854.

In response, five Houses of Refuge were built along the east coast of Florida from the Fort Pierce Inlet southward to Biscayne Bay.

[18] Very few people lived in modern-day Palm Beach County prior to the arrival of Henry Flagler, who first visited in the early 1890s.

Many local historic districts and landmarks listed in the National Register of Historic Places in Palm Beach County were designed and constructed during the 1920s, with the main contributors being architects Maurice Fatio, Addison Mizner, Marion Sims Wyeth, and the firm Harvey and Clarke, which included Gustav Maass.

[27] While the hurricane caused catastrophic impact in eastern portions of the county, the Lake Okeechobee region suffered a much heavier loss of life.

Wind-driven storm surge in the lake inundated hundreds of square miles, including the nearby communities of Belle Glade, Pahokee, and South Bay.

[28] As a result of 1926 Miami hurricane and the 1928 storm, Palm Beach County, along with the rest of South Florida, began suffering economic turmoil and pushed the region into the Great Depression, even before the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

[33] On August 28, 1949, a category-4 hurricane struck Lake Worth Beach with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 km/h),[27] causing considerable damage.

[35] Richard Paul Pavlick nearly attempted to assassinate then President-elect John F. Kennedy while the family vacationed in Palm Beach in December 1960.

[36] Additionally, a secret blast shelter was built on Peanut Island during his presidency because escalating Cold War tensions.

[38] Hurricane David struck near West Palm Beach late on September 3, 1979, with sustained winds of 100 mph (155 km/h).

Allegedly, the "butterfly ballot", designed by Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore, led to an unexpectedly large number of votes for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan, rather than for Democrat Al Gore.

However, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned the decision in Bush v. Gore on December 12, allowing Florida Secretary of the State Katherine Harris to award the 25 electoral votes to Bush, as Harris's tally prior to the state-ordered recounts placed him ahead of Gore by 537 popular votes.

[39][40] Later that month, during the anthrax attacks, a letter containing spores of this substance was mailed to the American Media, Inc. building in Boca Raton.

Three people were exposed to the anthrax, including Robert Stevens, a photo editor who later died after an infection induced by exposure.

With wind gusts in Palm Beach County peaking at 91 mph (146 km/h), the storm inflicted structural damage on about 15,000 houses and 2,400 businesses.

[44][45][46][47] In August 2012, the outer bands of Hurricane Isaac dropped at least 15.86 in (403 mm) of rain near Lion Country Safari.

[48] As Hurricane Irma approached in September 2017, mandatory or voluntary evacuations were ordered for more than 290,000 residents of Palm Beach County.

[52] The shipwreck was within walking distance of the shore—the Florida State Archives conserves a picture of a painting[53]—and a deliberate grounding so as to obtain an insurance payout has been proposed.

[62] However, the county's western communities along Lake Okeechobee, such as Belle Glade, South Bay, and Pahokee, have also been considered more part of the rural Florida Heartland.

[99] Previously W. R. Grace and Company had its headquarters in unincorporated Palm Beach County, near Boca Raton, employing about 130 staff.

The County collected $1.1 billion in property tax revenue in FY 2018, an increase of 6 percent over the previous year.

One is in Belle Glade, called the West Detention Center, which houses all custody levels from minimum to maximum security.

[144] Presently, the county is building a new 33,000-square-foot branch in the Canyon Town Center, located in western Boynton Beach.

The system's Main Library is located on Summit Boulevard in an unincorporated section of West Palm Beach.

It is the largest provider of library services in the county, serving an area that is comparable to the size of the state of Delaware, with holdings of over 1.88 million items.

[148] The county's first library began as a Free Reading Room in 1895 in West Palm Beach's first church, the Union Congregational Church, when Reverend Asbury Caldwell began collecting books for a reading club he hoped would keep construction workers out of the city's many drinking establishments located along First Street, or "Thirst Street" as it was known.