Santa Rosa County area

Population and density of Santa Rosa County

The Census Bureau estimates that 211,115 people lived in Santa Rosa County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #342 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #29 of 67 in Florida. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 187,994, the population has grown by 23,121 (+12.3%), compared with +8.9% for Florida as a whole.

With 1,012.4 square miles of land, that is 209 people per square mile (81 per km²), placing Santa Rosa County #626 nationally for density and #35 in Florida. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Florida median is 209. Put another way, there are about 3.1 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 Santa Rosa County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Santa Rosa County. Together they are home to 19,101 people (9%); the other 192,014 (91%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Milton city, with 11,440 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Gulf Breeze city grew fastest since then (+12.2%).

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

Metropolitan area

Santa Rosa County is a central county of the Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 544,949 residents on 1,669.4 square miles of land; Santa Rosa County accounts for 60.6% of the land and 38.7% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #192 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #109 by population.

ZIP codes

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

32530325313256132563325643256532566325703257132583

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 Santa Rosa County

Santa Rosa County shares a land border with 3 county equivalents, including 1 in Alabama. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Escambia County (945.4 mi²) and the smallest is Escambia County (657 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Santa Rosa County forms a block of 3,544.6 mi² of land, of which it holds 28.6%.

How big is Santa Rosa County compared with U.S. states?

Santa Rosa 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 Santa Rosa County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 31.8 miles (51.2 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 Santa Rosa County?

Santa Rosa County has more land than 2,556 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 Santa Rosa County at #582 nationally by total area, 84 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 17.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 16 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 Santa Rosa 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.