Florida County Map

Most populous counties

The five most populous counties had 9,028,003 of Florida’s 21,538,187 residents in 2020, or 41.9% of the state total.

1. Miami-Dade County: 2,701,767 (12.5%)
2. Broward County: 1,944,375 (9.0%)
3. Palm Beach County: 1,492,191 (6.9%)
4. Hillsborough County: 1,459,762 (6.8%)
5. Orange County: 1,429,908 (6.6%)

The three southeast coast counties, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, together had 6,138,333 residents, 28.5% of the state. Hillsborough County includes Tampa, and Orange County includes Orlando. Duval County (995,567) is sixth. The least populous county is Liberty County, west of Tallahassee, with 7,974 residents.

Largest and smallest counties

By land area the largest counties are Collier (1,996.9 sq mi), Palm Beach (1,964.3 sq mi) and Miami-Dade (1,899.9 sq mi), all in South Florida. Counting water, Monroe County, which includes the Florida Keys, is far larger than any other at 5,289.6 sq mi in total, but only 983.0 sq mi of that is land. The smallest county by land area is Union County (243.6 sq mi), north of Gainesville, followed by Pinellas County (273.7 sq mi), the peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf.

How counties work in Florida

Every Florida county has an elected board of county commissioners and a county seat. Florida counties provide many services directly, especially in unincorporated areas outside city limits. A few points help when reading the map:

• Duval County and Jacksonville consolidated in 1968, so one government serves the city and the county. This is why Jacksonville is the largest city in Florida by population.
• Miami-Dade County was named Dade County until 1997.
• Collier County’s seat, East Naples, is an unincorporated community rather than a city.

County lines also matter for time zones: most of the Panhandle west of the Apalachicola River, including Escambia, Okaloosa and Bay counties, uses Central Time, while the rest of Florida uses Eastern Time.