Hillsborough County area

Population and density of Hillsborough County

The Census Bureau estimates that 1,574,115 people lived in Hillsborough County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #26 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #4 of 67 in Florida. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 1,459,773, the population has grown by 114,342 (+7.8%), compared with +8.9% for Florida as a whole.

With 1,022.2 square miles of land, that is 1,540 people per square mile (595 per km²), placing Hillsborough County #114 nationally for density and #5 in Florida. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Florida median is 209. Put another way, there are about 0.416 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 Hillsborough County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Hillsborough County. Together they are home to 484,747 people (30.8%); the other 1,089,368 (69.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Tampa city, with 413,554 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Plant City city grew fastest since then (+10.7%).

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

Metropolitan area

Hillsborough County is a central county of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area, in the Tampa, FL metropolitan division. Its 4 county equivalents have 3,418,895 residents on 2,515.7 square miles of land; Hillsborough County accounts for 40.6% of the land and 46% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #131 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #17 by population.

ZIP codes

58 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Hillsborough County; 55 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

33503335103351133527335303353433540335473354833549335503355633558335593356333565335663356733569335703357233573335783357933584335923359433596335983360233603336043360533606336073360933610336113361233613336143361533616336173361833619336203362133624336253362633629336343363533637336473381033860

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 Hillsborough County

Hillsborough County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Polk County (1,798.8 mi²) and the smallest is Pinellas County (273.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Hillsborough County forms a block of 4,584.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 22.3%.

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

Hillsborough 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 52 areas the size of Hillsborough County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 32 miles (51.5 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 Hillsborough County?

Hillsborough County has more land than 2,573 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 Hillsborough County at #516 nationally by total area, 133 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 23.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 21.9 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 Hillsborough 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.