Highlands County area

Population and density of Highlands County

The Census Bureau estimates that 111,122 people lived in Highlands County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #581 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #36 of 67 in Florida. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 101,234, the population has grown by 9,888 (+9.8%), compared with +8.9% for Florida as a whole.

With 1,017.7 square miles of land, that is 109 people per square mile (42 per km²), placing Highlands County #934 nationally for density and #37 in Florida. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Florida median is 209. Put another way, there are about 5.9 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 Highlands County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Highlands County. Together they are home to 25,172 people (22.7%); the other 85,950 (77.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Sebring city, with 12,059 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Sebring city grew fastest since then (+10%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Highlands County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Highlands County is a central county of the Sebring, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Highlands County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the metro area has the same 1,017.7 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #278 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #352 by population.

ZIP codes

9 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Highlands County; 8 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

338253385233857338703387233875338763396034974

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 Highlands County

Highlands County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Polk County (1,798.8 mi²) and the smallest is DeSoto County (636.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Highlands County forms a block of 5,666.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 18%.

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

Highlands 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 times as much. Florida’s county land could hold about 53 areas the size of Highlands County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 31.9 miles (51.3 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 Highlands County?

Highlands County has more land than 2,567 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 Highlands County at #664 nationally by total area, 9 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 8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 6.9 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 Highlands 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.