Pasco County is a county located on the west central coast in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2025, the population of the county was estimated to be 682,179, making it the tenth-most populous county in the state. Its county seat is Dade City, and its largest city is Zephyrhills. The county is named after United States senator Samuel Pasco.
Pasco County is included in the Tampa Bay Area and historically has been a bedroom community for the Tampa and St. Petersburg cities. It is 30 miles away from the city of Tampa. The county includes numerous parks and trails located along rivers, the Gulf of Mexico, lakes, and highway/railroad right-of-ways. Several nudist resorts are located in Pasco County. The county has become known as the "naturist capital of the United States", starting in 1941.
West Pasco includes retirement areas, commercial fishing, and suburbs of Tampa. The Suncoast Parkway as well as U.S. 19, U.S. 41, U.S. 98, U.S. 301, and Interstate 75 all pass through Pasco County. The county is directly west of Polk and Sumter counties, north of Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, and south of Hernando County.
History
Early history
Native settlement The earliest known residents of Pasco County were the Timucua people who lived on the land in the early 1200s. Settlers in Florida brought diseases to the area however, wiping out the tribe. Other Native American tribes like the Calusa also lived along the Gulf of Mexico in Pasco County. The tribe had a deep-rooted connection between the land and its inhabitants.
Exploration In the 1500s, Spanish explorers came into the Florida region, encountering with the Native American tribes. This started major cultural exchanges for the groups. Pasco County, at that point became a point of interest to the Spanish explorers because of its strategic coastal location.
Seminole conflict The Creek Native tribe from Georgia and Alabama migrated to Florida with one tribe becoming known as the Seminoles in the region. The tribe fought with the British against American settlers during the First Seminole War and had constant fighting with the Spanish until the buying of Florida to the United States in 1819. The United States military had major conflict with the Native Americans in the Second Seminole War that included the destruction of Fort Dade, of which Dade City is named after.
Civil war When Civil War broke out in 1861, Florida joined the Confederate States of America. Though Pasco County was too far to be changed by the war in much of the conflicts, men from Pasco County supported both sides of the conflict. The closest engagement of Pasco County soldiers was in Bayport, Hernando County, Florida.
Founding Pasco County was founded on June 2, 1887, from the southern third of Hernando County. The legislation was passed by former Governor Edward A. Perry to divide the former Hernando County into three counties. The legislation also created Citrus County from the northern third of Hernando County. The county was named after Samuel Pasco, who had just been elected to the United States Senate, though he never visited the county.
Pasco County's early towns were Anclote, Blanton, Dade City, Earnestville, Fort Dade (not to be confused with Fort Dade on Egmont Key), Macon (Trilby), Lacoochee, St. Leo, and San Antonio.
Dade City was named the temporary county seat with the same legislation to make Pasco County. It stayed temporary until March 14, 1889, when W.B. Lynch got a petition with 320 signatures to hold an election for the county seat. The board accepted the petition with the election for April 11, 1889. On April 16, 1889, Dade city won with 432 votes of the 765.
Citrus was an important industry when the county was formed in 1887. Though, in December 1894 and then again in February 1895, temperatures fell throughout the state, in an event called The Great Freeze. Many citrus growers lost their crops from the freeze in Pasco County.
20th Century changes As early as 1914, residents of the western part of the county proposed forming a separate county or merging with Pinellas County, as Dade City was not centrally located in the county. Several large sawmills operated in the county in the early part of the 20th century. The issue was finally resolved in 1979 with the construction of identical government centers in both New Port Richey and Dade City, now called West Pasco Government Center and East Pasco Government Center respectively.
Early train system The SAL Tarpon Springs branch line from Tarpon Junction 14 miles west of Tampa to Elfers and thence to New Port Richey lost its passenger service and became listed as freight only between 1932 and 1938. The freight branch was truncated to Elfers in 1943. The tracks from Elfers and Chemical (an industrial area in the extreme southwest part of the county along the Anclote River west of Holiday) to Tarpon Springs had its last freight train on December 24, 1986, leaving the western half of the county without freight rail service.
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad until 1957 ran the Southland through Trilby and Tarpon Springs, en route to St. Petersburg. The train was unusual for providing passenger service direct from Chicago (via the Pennsylvania), Cincinnati and Atlanta on a direct route through the western part of the Florida peninsula, bypassing Jacksonville.Pennsylvania Railroad, January 1954, page 9, Table C http://streamlinermemories.info/PRR/PRR54-1TT.pdfMaiken, Peter. Night Trains, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989, p. 142. The Seaboard Coast Line (a merged line from the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air Line) until 1971 ran a local train (the last passenger train for the region north of St. Petersburg and west of Dade City) through those towns from Jacksonville and Gainesville, bound for St. Petersburg. Prior to the 1967 merger for the SCL that service had been the western branch of the ACL's Champion from New York City.April 1967 ACL Timetable, Table 14, reproduced http://www.thejoekorner.com/brochures/acl-timetable/ Until 1968 the SCL ran its Sunland from Washington, DC and Portsmouth, VA to Tampa.Seaboard Coast Line timetable, December 31, 1967, Table 20
Land boom During the Florida land boom of the 1920s, New Port Richey became the winter home of silent screen star Thomas Meighan and golfer Gene Sarazen; Meighan attempted to bring other Hollywood figures to the city. The county has experienced significant population growth since the 1970s, growing by over 600%. The growth began along the Gulf coast but is now occurring most rapidly in areas north of Tampa.
Recent history Pasco County has historically been a bedroom community for Tampa and St. Petersburg. Though, recent companies are constructing major centers in the county, such as Moffit Cancer Center's Speros campus, which is expected to bring over 11,000 jobs.
Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Pasco County has a total area of , of which is land and (14.0%) is water. It is located on the Florida Nature Coast and the Tampa Bay Area, being 30 miles north from the city of Tampa, and 50 miles west from Orlando.
Topography and elevation There are six named hills in Pasco County, with the highest hill being Nursery Hill, which rises , though the highest point in Pasco County is Clay Hill, which is 301 feet (92 m). Greer Hill, the third largest summit, has 66 homes and 120,000 square feet of office space on and around it.
Pasco County has an average elevation of . The western part of Pasco County is relatively flat, and has tidal flats on the coast. The lowest point of the county is . In the eastern areas there are hills, where elevations can reach between 100 and 300 feet above sea level. The rolling terrain appears especially around communities such as San Antonio and St. Leo.
Bodies of water
Rivers The Anclote and Pithlachascotee rivers both run through Pasco County. The two rivers have been flood-prone, and were watched during Hurricane Idalia in 2023. The Anclote river also flooded during Hurricane Milton in 2024, where it crested at 26.57 feet high.
Lakes
There are 70 lakes in Pasco County, with a total of about of lake. Hancock Lake is the largest lake in the county, covering . There are three state parks nearby to Hancock Lake. The smallest lake, Little Moss Lake, in Pasco County only covers .
Anclote Key Anclote Key is a barrier island, most of which is in Pasco County (the southern end is in Pinellas County). The island is about three miles long and over a mile from the mainland. North of Anclote Key the North Anclote Bar is a sand bar that has emerged above water and become vegetated since the 1990s. Anclote Key and the North Anclote Bar, as well as the South Anclote Bar and Three Rooker Island in Pinellas County, are part of the Anclote Key Preserve State Park. Anclote Key is the northernmost barrier island on the west coast of the Florida peninsula. The side of Anclote Key facing the mainland is composed of mangrove forest and tidal marsh. The island is only accessible by boat.
Climate The county has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) and average temperatures in Dade City range from 59.2 °F in January to 82.1 °F in July and August while in Port Richey they range from 59.0 °F in January to 82.2 °F in August.
Demographics
Racial and ethnic composition
+Pasco County, Florida – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 1980Pop 1990Pop 2000Pop 2010 Pop 2020% 1980% 1990% 2000% 2010% 2020Percent changeWhite alone (NH)184,022264,308310,066372,239392,37595.03%94.02%89.94%80.10%69.83% −10.27%Black or African American alone (NH)3,9605,3036,83319,01031,6012.05%1.89%1.98%4.09%5.62% +1.53%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)3627401,0491,2361,3880.19%0.26%0.30%0.27%0.25% −0.02%Asian alone (NH)3871,4043,1949,60916,4080.20%0.50%0.93%2.07%2.92% +0.85%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)x included in the Asian category in the 1980 Censusx included in the Asian category in the 1990 Census95223308xx0.03%0.05%0.05%0.00%Other race alone (NH)206673196862,7710.11%0.02%0.09%0.15%0.49% +0.34%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)x not an option in the 1980 Censusx not an option in the 1990 Census3,6067,15823,883xx1.05%1.54%4.25% +2.71%Hispanic or Latino (any race)4,7069,30919,60354,53693,1572.43%3.31%5.69%11.74%16.58% +4.84%Total193,643281,131344,765464,697561,891 100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%
Population
As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 561,891 and 139,278 families residing there.
The median age was 45.0 years. 20.3% of residents were under the age of 18 and 22.7% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 93.6 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 91.4 males age 18 and over.
The racial makeup of the county was 74.2% White, 6.1% Black or African American, 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 3.0% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 4.7% from some other race, and 11.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 16.6% of the population.
92.8% of residents lived in urban areas, while 7.2% lived in rural areas.
There were 225,214 households in the county, of which 27.8% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 48.9% were married-couple households, 16.8% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 26.2% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 26.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 256,783 housing units, of which 12.3% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 73.4% were owner-occupied and 26.6% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.5% and the rental vacancy rate was 9.2%.
Age, density, and income