Pinellas County area

Population and density of Pinellas County

The Census Bureau estimates that 948,563 people lived in Pinellas County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #58 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #7 of 67 in Florida. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 959,090, the population has declined by 10,527 (−1.1%), compared with +8.9% for Florida as a whole.

With 273.8 square miles of land, that is 3,464 people per square mile (1,337 per km²), placing Pinellas County #34 nationally for density and #1 in Florida. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Florida median is 209. Put another way, there are about 0.185 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 Pinellas County

24 incorporated places lie at least partly in Pinellas County. Together they are home to 680,857 people (71.8%); the other 267,706 (28.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is St. Petersburg city, with 264,033 residents in the county. The county seat, Clearwater city, has 114,364 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Belleair town grew fastest since then (+8.1%).

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

Metropolitan area

Pinellas County is a central county of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area, in the St. Petersburg-Clearwater-Largo, FL metropolitan division. Its 4 county equivalents have 3,418,895 residents on 2,515.7 square miles of land; Pinellas County accounts for 10.9% of the land and 27.7% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #131 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #17 by population.

ZIP codes

48 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Pinellas County, and each lies mostly inside the county.

337013370233703337043370533706337073370833709337103371133712337133371433715337163374433755337563375933760337613376233763337643376533767337703377133772337733377433776337773377833781337823378533786346773468134683346843468534688346893469534698

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Pinellas County

Pinellas County shares a land border with 2 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Pinellas County. The largest neighbor is Hillsborough County (1,022.2 mi²) and the smallest is Pasco County (746.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Pinellas County forms a block of 2,042.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.4%.

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

Pinellas County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3.8 times as much. Florida’s county land could hold about 196 areas the size of Pinellas County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 16.5 miles (26.6 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 Pinellas County?

Pinellas County has more land than 363 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 Pinellas County at #1,071 nationally by total area, 1,788 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 68.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 67 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 Pinellas 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.