St. Lucie County, Florida

St. Lucie County
St. Lucie County
County
	St. Lucie County Courthouse
	Seal
	Location within the U.S. state of Florida
	Florida's location within the U.S.
	Coordinates: 27°23′N 80°26′W / 27.38°N 80.44°W
Country	United States
State	Florida
Founded	May 24, 1905
Named for	St. Lucie Inlet
Seat	Fort Pierce
Largest city	Port St. Lucie
Area
• Total	688 sq mi (1,780 km2)
• Land	572 sq mi (1,480 km2)
• Water	116 sq mi (300 km2) 16.9%
Population (2020)
• Total	329,226
• Density	576/sq mi (222/km2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Congressional district	18th
Website	www.stlucieco.gov

St. Lucie County is a county in the state of Florida. The county seat is the city of Fort Pierce. As of 2020, 329,226 people lived there.^[1]

History

The current St. Lucie County was created in 1905 from the southern part of Brevard County. Brevard County had been named St. Lucie County from 1844 until 1855 when it was renamed Brevard County.

In 1925, Indian River County was created out of the northern part of St Lucie County, while northern Martin County was created from a small part of southeastern St. Lucie County and the northern part of Palm Beach County. Much of western St Lucie County had gone in 1917 to form Okeechobee County.

Land

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 688 square miles (1,780 km²), of which 572 square miles (1,480 km²) is land and 116 square miles (300 km²) (16.9%) is water,^[2] much of it in the Atlantic Ocean.

St. Lucie County is part of the Port St. Lucie Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Major highways

Counties nearby

People

At the 2020 census, 329,226 people lived in the county. There were 128,997 households and 2,910 people who did not live in households. The population density was 575.9 people per square mile (222.4/km²). The median age was 45.9 years (44.3 for males, 47.4 for females).

Of the total population, 19.9% were under 18 years old, 55.9% were 18 to 64, and 24.2% were 65 or over. Males made up 48.5% and females made up 51.5% of the people. The population was 53.6% White (non-Latino), 20.1% Hispanic or Latino, 19.6% Black (non-Latino), 1.7% Asian, and 3.9% Two or more races (non-Latino). Other races each make up less than 1% of the population.

Of the 128,997 households, 88,835 (68.9%) were families, 35,476 (27.5%) had children under 18, 63,187 (49.0%) had a married couple, and 31,599 (24.5%) had one person living alone. The average household size was 2.5 people. There were 147,884 housing units, and 87.2% had people living in them all year. Of these households, 74.6% were owner-occupied, while 25.4% were renters.^[3]^[4]

As of 2022, the median (middle) income for a household was about $66,154, and the median income for a family was about $75,649.^[5] The per capita income was about $33,847.^[6] About 8.5% of families^[7] and 12.5% of all people in St. Lucie County lived below the poverty line. This includes 19.4% of children under 18 years old and 9.5% of people over 65 years old.^[8]