Florida Counties: History and Information

Find a brief history of Florida Counties

Florida is a state of the southeast United States bordering on the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. It was admitted as the 27th state on 3 March 1845. The peninsula was explored by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513 and became the center of a Spanish settlement that included the southeast part of the present-day United States. Spain finally ceded the area in 1819. Tallahassee is the capital and Jacksonville the largest city.

There are 67 counties in the state of Florida. It became a territory of the US in 1821 with two counties complementing the provincial divisions retained as a Spanish territory: Escambia to the west and St. Johns to the east, divided by the Suwanee River. All of the other counties were apportioned from these two original counties. Florida became the 27th US state in 1845, and its last county was created in 1925 with the formation of Gilchrist County from a segment of Alachua County. Florida's counties are subdivisions of the state government. In 1968, counties gained the power to develop their own charters. All but two of Florida's county seats are incorporated municipalities. The exceptions are Crawfordville, county seat of rural Wakulla County, and East Naples, located outside Naples city limits in Collier County.

The names of Florida's counties reflect its diverse cultural heritage. Some are named for Southern political leaders and Spanish explorers, marking the influence of Spanish sovereignty, while others are named for Spanish saints, Native American place names used by the Spanish, and political leaders of the United States. Natural features of the region, including rivers, lakes, and flora, are also commonly used for county names. Florida has counties named for participants on both sides of Second Seminole War: Miami-Dade County is partially named for Francis L. Dade, a Major in the US Army at the time; Osceola County is named for a Native American resistance leader during the war.