DeSoto County area

Population and density of DeSoto County

The Census Bureau estimates that 37,078 people lived in DeSoto County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,293 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #49 of 67 in Florida. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 33,979, the population has grown by 3,099 (+9.1%), compared with +8.9% for Florida as a whole.

With 636.7 square miles of land, that is 58 people per square mile (22 per km²), placing DeSoto County #1,411 nationally for density and #48 in Florida. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Florida median is 209. Put another way, there are about 11 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 DeSoto County

1 incorporated place lies at least partly in DeSoto County. Together they are home to 8,046 people (21.7%); the other 29,032 (78.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Arcadia city, with 8,046 residents in the county.

Metropolitan area

DeSoto County is a central county of the Arcadia, FL Micropolitan Statistical Area. DeSoto County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 636.7 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #332 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #363 by population. It belongs to the North Port-Bradenton, FL Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

5 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in DeSoto County; 4 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

3386534266342673426834269

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 DeSoto County

DeSoto County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Highlands County (1,017.7 mi²) and the smallest is Sarasota County (556.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, DeSoto County forms a block of 4,271.9 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.9%.

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

DeSoto County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.6 times as much. Florida’s county land could hold about 84 areas the size of DeSoto County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 25.2 miles (40.6 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 DeSoto County?

DeSoto County has more land than 1,725 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 DeSoto County at #1,617 nationally by total area, 120 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 0.4%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.8 percentage points lower. 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 DeSoto 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.