Pinellas County is a county in Florida, United States, on a narrow peninsula about 20 miles west of Tampa across Tampa Bay. It had a population of 959,107 at the 2020 census, an estimated 948,563 by 2025, and covers 274 square miles (710 km2) of land centred near 27\u00b054\u2032N 82\u00b044\u2032W.<\/p>\n
Clearwater is the county seat; its postal code is 33756. The county holds 16 cities, 8 towns and several unincorporated communities, and it runs on Eastern time. Its FIPS code is 12103.<\/p>\n
Pinellas County has 24 incorporated municipalities — 16 cities and 8 towns — packed into one of the smallest, most crowded counties in the country. Every one has its own government; none is a subdivision of another. CDPs are unincorporated communities the Census Bureau tracks but that have no city hall of their own.<\/p>\n
| Place<\/th>\n | Type<\/th>\n | Pop.<\/th>\n | ZIP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clearwater<\/td>\n | City · seat<\/td>\n | 117,292<\/td>\n | 33756<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| St. Petersburg<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 258,308<\/td>\n | 33701<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Largo<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 82,485<\/td>\n | 33770<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Pinellas Park<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 53,093<\/td>\n | 33781<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Dunedin<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 36,068<\/td>\n | 34698<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Tarpon Springs<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 25,117<\/td>\n | 34689<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Seminole<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 19,364<\/td>\n | 33772<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Safety Harbor<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 17,072<\/td>\n | 34695<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Oldsmar<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 14,898<\/td>\n | 34677<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Gulfport<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 11,783<\/td>\n | 33707<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| St. Pete Beach<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 8,879<\/td>\n | 33706<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Treasure Island<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 6,584<\/td>\n | 33706<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| South Pasadena<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 5,353<\/td>\n | 33707<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Kenneth City<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 5,047<\/td>\n | 33709<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Belleair<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 4,273<\/td>\n | 33756<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Madeira Beach<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 3,895<\/td>\n | 33708<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Indian Rocks Beach<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 3,673<\/td>\n | 33785<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Belleair Bluffs<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 2,311<\/td>\n | 33770<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Redington Shores<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 2,176<\/td>\n | 33708<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Belleair Beach<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 1,633<\/td>\n | 33786<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| North Redington Beach<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 1,495<\/td>\n | 33708<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Redington Beach<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 1,376<\/td>\n | 33708<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Indian Shores<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 1,190<\/td>\n | 33785<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Belleair Shore<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 73<\/td>\n | 33786<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n Two pairs trip up visitors. St. Petersburg and St. Pete Beach are different places 15 miles apart — St. Petersburg is the county’s largest city, on the mainland and Tampa Bay side, while St. Pete Beach is a small Gulf-front city on Long Key. Clearwater and Clearwater Beach are not a pair of towns at all: Clearwater Beach is a neighborhood of the city of Clearwater, on the barrier island west of downtown, connected by the Memorial Causeway. And the four Belleair municipalities — Belleair, Belleair Beach, Belleair Bluffs and Belleair Shore — are four separately incorporated governments sharing one root name; none is a district of another.<\/p>\n Beyond the 24 municipalities, roughly 130,000 residents live in unincorporated CDPs that never voted to incorporate. The largest are Palm Harbor (61,366), East Lake (32,344), Lealman (21,189) and West Lealman (16,438) in the county’s north and central sections, plus Tierra Verde (3,836), Feather Sound (3,607), Ridgecrest (2,966) and Bear Creek (1,906) closer to the bay. A dozen smaller CDPs — Bardmoor, Harbor Bluffs, Fairmount and others — cover a few hundred to a few thousand residents each; Pinellas County government, not a city hall, provides their services.<\/p>\n ZIP Codes<\/h2>\nBelleair Shore, with 73 residents, has never supported its own post office and shares 33786 with neighboring Belleair Beach; the three Redington towns likewise share 33708 rather than each running a separate post office.<\/p>\n Geography<\/h2>\nPinellas sits on a peninsula between Tampa Bay to the east and the Gulf of Mexico to the west, 38 miles long and up to 15 miles wide. Water covers 334 square miles (870 km2), 55 percent of the county’s total area, making it the most densely populated county in Florida despite its modest land footprint. A chain of barrier islands — Honeymoon Island, Caladesi Island, Clearwater Beach, Sand Key, the Redingtons, Madeira Beach, Treasure Island and Long Key — runs the length of the Gulf coast, separated from the mainland by the Intracoastal Waterway. Boca Ciega Bay lies between the southern barrier islands and St. Petersburg; Old Tampa Bay separates the county’s northeast corner from Hillsborough County.<\/p>\n Pinellas is one of only two Florida counties, along with Duval, with no other county bordering it entirely by land on more than one side. Pasco County lies to the north, across the county line near Tarpon Springs and East Lake. Hillsborough County lies to the east and south, across Old Tampa Bay and Tampa Bay itself — reached by the Howard Frankland Bridge, the Courtney Campbell Causeway, the Gandy Bridge and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge rather than a land boundary.<\/p>\n Demographics<\/h2>\nThe county’s population dipped from 959,107 at the 2020 census to an estimated 948,563 by 2025, a roughly 1 percent decline driven by coastal out-migration after the 2024 hurricane season. St. Petersburg (258,308) and Clearwater (117,292) are the two largest communities; together they hold nearly 40 percent of the county’s residents. Median household income was $72,646 in 2024, slightly below Florida’s statewide median of $74,568. Population density runs about 3,500 people per square mile of land, the highest of any Florida county.<\/p>\n Economy & Local Life<\/h2>\nHealth care and social assistance is the county’s largest employment sector, with 67,839 workers, followed by retail trade (55,286) and professional, scientific and technical services (49,159). Major employers include Raymond James Financial and Duke Energy Florida, both headquartered in St. Petersburg; Jabil, an electronics manufacturer also based in St. Petersburg; Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, which fabricates aircraft components in Pinellas Park; and Honeywell Aerospace, with a manufacturing plant in Clearwater. HCA Florida and BayCare operate the county’s largest hospital systems. The county’s biggest annual event is the Epiphany celebration in Tarpon Springs each January 6, when the Greek Orthodox community sends young divers into Spring Bayou to retrieve a ceremonial cross, a tradition tracing to the city’s sponge-diving heritage.<\/p>\n History<\/h2>\nThe Tocobaga people occupied the Pinellas peninsula for centuries before Spanish contact; P\u00e1nfilo de Narv\u00e1ez landed nearby in 1528 and Hernando de Soto passed through around 1538, and European disease devastated the Tocobaga population that followed. Spain ceded Florida to the United States in 1821, and the peninsula was organized as part of Hillsborough County in 1834. Odet Philippe established the area’s first permanent non-native settlement in 1835, introducing citrus cultivation and cigar-making. Tarpon Springs incorporated in 1887, the first city on the peninsula; St. Petersburg, named by Russian-born developer Peter Demens for his hometown, incorporated in 1892, followed by Clearwater in 1891 and Dunedin in 1899.<\/p>\n Residents of the peninsula, feeling neglected by the Hillsborough County government in Tampa, voted to secede, and Pinellas County came into being on January 1, 1912. The name derives from the Spanish “Punta Pi\u00f1al,” or “Point of Pines,” a name Spanish sailors used for the peninsula. A 1920s land boom brought rapid development before the real estate market collapsed in 1926. On May 9, 1980, the freighter MV Summit Venture struck the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, dropping more than 1,200 feet of roadway into Tampa Bay and killing 35 people; a new, cable-stayed span opened in 1987 and remains one of the longest of its kind in the world.<\/p>\n On September 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene passed offshore and drove a historic storm surge into the county’s barrier islands and coastal neighborhoods, the worst flood damage the county had seen in a century. Less than two weeks later, on October 9, 2024, Hurricane Milton made landfall just south of the county; its winds tore the roof off Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg and toppled construction cranes in the downtown area. Recovery work on the beach communities, including St. Pete Beach, Treasure Island and Madeira Beach, was still underway through 2025.<\/p>\n Getting There<\/h2>\nInterstate 275 crosses the county on a north–south arc, entering from Hillsborough County over the Howard Frankland Bridge and leaving to the south over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge toward Manatee County. U.S. Route 19 is the county’s main north–south surface road, running the length of the peninsula through Clearwater, Palm Harbor and Tarpon Springs. The Courtney Campbell Causeway (U.S. 92\/State Road 60) and the Gandy Bridge both carry traffic east to Tampa across Old Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
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