Palm Beach Gardens is a city in Palm Beach County in the U.S. state of Florida, 77 mi (124 km) north of Miami. Palm Beach Gardens is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 59,182.

Prior to development, the land that became Palm Beach Gardens was primarily cattle ranches and pine forests, as well as swampland farther west. The first settlers in the 1890s were residents of Juno, what is now Juno Beach, near what is now the Oakbrook Square Shopping Center near US Highway 1 and PGA Boulevard. By the early 1900s, two other areas in what is now considered Palm Beach Gardens were settled—Prairie Siding, a railroad station and timber mill located at the present-day intersection of RCA Boulevard and Alternate A1A; and Kelsey City, named after magnate Harry Kelsey, who purchased 100,000 acres of land that would become North Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, and Lake Park. In 1959, wealthy landowner and insurance magnate John D. MacArthur announced plans to develop 4,000 acres (16 km2) and build homes for 55,000 people.  He chose the name Palm Beach Gardens after his initial choice, Palm Beach City, was denied by the Florida Legislature, because of the similarity of the name to the nearby Palm Beach. MacArthur planned to build a "garden city" so he altered the name slightly. The city was incorporated as a "paper town" (meaning that it existed only on paper) in 1959. The 1960 Census recorded that the city officially had a population of one inhabitant: 71-year old Charles Cooper, who lived in a shack without running water or electricity. According to Cooper, MacArthur had made a deal with him that "If he set fire to the old shack, I would fix him... in a house that would have running water, a toilet, and septic tank to let him live decently." Cooper's shack burned down in 1960; by 1970 he was living in a frame house provided by MacArthur.