Charlotte County area

Population and density of Charlotte County

The Census Bureau estimates that 217,212 people lived in Charlotte County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #331 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #28 of 67 in Florida. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 186,823, the population has grown by 30,389 (+16.3%), compared with +8.9% for Florida as a whole.

With 681.2 square miles of land, that is 319 people per square mile (123 per km²), placing Charlotte County #488 nationally for density and #26 in Florida. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Florida median is 209. Put another way, there are about 2 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Charlotte County

1 incorporated place lies at least partly in Charlotte County. Together they are home to 20,383 people (9.4%); the other 196,829 (90.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Punta Gorda city, with 20,383 residents in the county.

Metropolitan area

Charlotte County is a central county of the Punta Gorda, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Charlotte County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the metro area has the same 681.2 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #325 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #223 by population. It belongs to the North Port-Bradenton, FL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

17 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Charlotte County; 13 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

3391733921339463394733948339503395233953339543395533980339813398233983342233422434269

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Charlotte County

Charlotte County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Glades County (806.8 mi²) and the smallest is Sarasota County (556.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Charlotte County forms a block of 3,462 mi² of land, of which it holds 19.7%.

How big is Charlotte County compared with U.S. states?

Charlotte County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.5 times as much. Florida’s county land could hold about 79 areas the size of Charlotte County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 26.1 miles (42 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Charlotte County?

Charlotte County has more land than 1,844 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Charlotte County at #853 nationally by total area, 525 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 28.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 26.9 percentage points higher. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Charlotte County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.