Manatee County, Florida

Manatee County is a county in Florida, United States, about 40 miles south of Tampa on the Gulf Coast. It had a population of 399,710 at the 2020 census, an estimated 468,200 by 2025, and covers 743 square miles (1,920 km2) centred near 27°30′N 82°34′W.

Bradenton is the county seat and the county’s largest city; its postal code is 34205. The county holds 5 incorporated cities, 1 incorporated town and 10 census-designated places, plus dozens of unincorporated communities, and it runs on Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 12081.

Towns & Villages in Manatee County

Manatee County has 16 places tracked by the Census Bureau: 6 incorporated cities and towns and 10 census-designated places (CDPs) with no local government of their own. CDP stands for census designated place. Florida has no civil townships, so places here are not grouped by township the way they are in Midwestern counties.

Two places on this list straddle the Sarasota County line. Lakewood Ranch’s 34,877 residents are split between southeastern Manatee and northeastern Sarasota counties — the CDP has no separate Manatee-only count. Longboat Key runs the same way: the barrier-island town is almost evenly divided between the two counties, and its 7,505 residents include the Sarasota-side half of the island. Cortez also carries two ZIP codes, 34215 for the fishing village itself and 34210 for its Bradenton-facing edge.

Beyond these 16 tracked places, county maps name 28 more unincorporated communities with no population of their own. The largest and best known are Parrish, a growing crossroads in northwestern Manatee served by ZIP 34219 and home to the Florida Railroad Museum, and Myakka City, a rural settlement platted in 1915 in the county’s southeastern ranchland, ZIP 34251. Smaller ones include Cedar Hammock, Duette, Fort Hamer, Oneco, Palma Sola, Rubonia, Rye, Snead Island, Tara, Terra Ceia, Village of the Arts and Willow — crossroads and rural place-names with no formal boundary or census count.

ZIP Codes

• 34205 — Bradenton (downtown, also serves South Bradenton)
• 34207 — Bradenton (also serves Bayshore Gardens and South Bradenton)
• 34208 — Bradenton (Samoset and West Samoset)
• 34209 — Bradenton (West Bradenton)
• 34210 — Bradenton (Cortez’s eastern edge)
• 34215 — Cortez
• 34216 — Anna Maria
• 34217 — Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach
• 34219 — Parrish
• 34221 — Palmetto and Memphis
• 34222 — Ellenton
• 34228 — Longboat Key
• 34243 — Whitfield
• 34251 — Myakka City
• 34202, 34211 — Lakewood Ranch

Smaller unincorporated communities such as Rubonia, Rye and Tara have no ZIP of their own; mail there is delivered under the nearest incorporated town or CDP’s code.

Geography

Manatee County sits on Florida’s central Gulf Coast, where the coastal lowlands meet Tampa Bay’s southern shore. Of its 743 square miles, most is land; roughly 150 square miles is water, split between the Gulf of Mexico, Tampa Bay, Terra Ceia Bay and the county’s rivers. The Manatee River, fed by the Braden River and impounded upstream at Lake Manatee to supply the county’s drinking water, runs west through Bradenton to Tampa Bay. Two barrier islands, Anna Maria Island and the Manatee half of Longboat Key, front the Gulf and shelter the mainland from open-water storms. The Sunshine Skyway Bridge carries Interstate 275 across the mouth of Tampa Bay from Terra Ceia in Manatee County to Pinellas County on the far shore.

Hillsborough County lies to the north, Polk County to the northeast, Hardee County to the east, DeSoto County to the southeast, and Sarasota County to the south. Of these, Polk County, Hardee County and Sarasota County have their own pages on this site; Hillsborough and DeSoto counties do not yet.

Demographics

Manatee County had a population of 399,710 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts the county near 468,200 residents by 2025 — among the faster-growing counties on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Bradenton and South Bradenton are the two largest named communities, together holding well over 80,000 residents. Median household income in the county ran $78,457 in 2024, above Florida’s statewide 2023 ACS figure of $73,311. Population density works out to roughly 538 people per square mile of land at the 2020 count, concentrated along the coast and around Bradenton, with the eastern half of the county still largely rural and agricultural.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance employs the most workers in the county, about 26,466 people, followed by retail trade at 24,827 and construction at 18,059. Tropicana Products, the juice maker founded in Bradenton in 1947, remains one of the county’s best-known employers, alongside Bealls, the department-store chain founded in Bradenton in 1915. IMG Academy, a boarding school and sports-training campus on more than 600 acres in Bradenton, draws student-athletes from around the world and is one of the county’s largest private employers. The Bradenton Marauders, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Class A affiliate, play spring training and minor-league games at LECOM Park downtown. The county’s biggest annual event is the De Soto Heritage Festival each May, marking Hernando de Soto’s 1539 landing near Bradenton with a grand parade, a seafood festival and a bottle-boat regatta that has run for more than 80 years.

History

The Florida Legislature created Manatee County on 9 January 1855, carving it out of a vast Hillsborough County that once ran from Tampa Bay to the state’s southern tip. The new county was named for the West Indian manatee, later designated Florida’s state marine mammal. Its first seat was the village of Manatee on the river’s south shore, in what is now eastern Bradenton; the seat moved to Pine Level in 1866 after a legislature-ordered vote, then to Braiden Town, now Bradenton, in 1887 once DeSoto County’s creation had shrunk Manatee’s boundaries. Sarasota County split off from Manatee’s southern end in 1921, setting the county’s present borders.

Before the Civil War the county’s economy ran on cattle ranching; the 1860 census counted 601 free residents and 214 enslaved people, with roughly 37 cattle for every person in the county. In August 1864 the Union schooner USS Stonewall raided up the Manatee River against Confederate supply lines. Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin took refuge at the Gamble Plantation mansion in Ellenton for several weeks in May 1865 before escaping by boat to England; the plantation house, built in the 1840s, is now the oldest structure in Ellenton. More recently, the original Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapsed on 9 May 1980 after the freighter Summit Venture struck a support pier in fog, killing 35 people when a section of roadway fell into Tampa Bay; the replacement cable-stayed bridge, with wider shipping channels and protective piers, opened in 1987.

Getting There

Interstate 75 crosses the county north-south through its eastern half, and Interstate 275 enters from the north via the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. US Route 19, US Route 41 and US Route 301 also run through the county, along with State Roads 37, 62, 64, 70 and 789.

• Tampa — about 40 miles north
• Sarasota — about 10 miles south
• St. Petersburg — about 30 miles northwest
• Lakeland — about 45 miles northeast

Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, just south of the county line near Longboat Key’s mainland approach, is the closest commercial airport; Tampa International Airport, about 40 miles north, offers a wider range of flights. Amtrak has no station in the county; the nearest connection is a Thruway Motorcoach link from Sarasota to Amtrak’s Tampa station.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Manatee County located?
It sits on Florida’s central Gulf Coast about 40 miles south of Tampa, bordered by Hillsborough, Polk, Hardee, DeSoto and Sarasota counties.

What is the population of Manatee County?
399,710 at the 2020 census, with an estimate near 468,200 by 2025.

How big is Manatee County?
743 square miles (1,920 km2) of land, plus about 150 square miles of water.

What is the county seat of Manatee County?
Bradenton, the county’s largest city, has served as the seat since 1887.

How many towns and cities are in Manatee County?
Six incorporated places — Bradenton, Palmetto, Holmes Beach, Anna Maria, Bradenton Beach and the town of Longboat Key — plus 10 census-designated places and 28 smaller unincorporated communities.

What ZIP codes does Manatee County use?
34205, 34207, 34208 and 34209 for the Bradenton area; 34215 for Cortez; 34216 for Anna Maria; 34217 for Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach; 34219 for Parrish; 34221 and 34222 for Palmetto and Ellenton; 34228 for Longboat Key; and 34202/34211 for Lakewood Ranch.

What is Manatee County known for?
The Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Anna Maria Island’s beaches, the Gamble Plantation, and Bradenton’s spring-training ties to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Florida.