Hillsborough County, Florida: County Guide

Hillsborough County is the Tampa Bay county created in 1834, and its seat of government is downtown Tampa, home to County Center on Kennedy Boulevard.

On Jan. 25, 1834, the Legislative Council for the Territory of Florida approved the act organizing Hillsborough as Florida's 19th county (Hillsborough County history). At statehood in 1845 the county was enormous: it took in what are now Pinellas, Polk, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, DeSoto, Hardee and Highlands counties, most of Glades and part of Lee, yet Hillsborough counted only 836 people, not including soldiers or Native Americans.

The first Hillsborough commissioners met in 1846 to take up taxes, transportation, a new courthouse and jail, and downtown development. The county tax raised $148.69 that year, and commissioners were paid $2 per day while in session (county history). The original courthouse, a small log cabin, had burned during the Second Seminole War, and Capt. James McKay, who took over the project in 1847, completed a two-story replacement for $1,358.

A red brick courthouse with a silver dome went up in downtown Tampa in 1892, designed by J.A. Wood of Tampa Bay Hotel fame; it came down in 1953 and survives on the County seal. The George E. Edgecomb Courthouse opened in 2004 at Pierce and Twiggs streets, and County Center, opened in 1994, was renamed the Frederick B. Karl County Center in 2000 after the County Administrator who pushed to buy the building.

Today Hillsborough County spans 1,022.537 square miles of land and 305.284 square miles of water, according to the Census Bureau's 2024 county gazetteer (Census gazetteer), so water makes up nearly a quarter of the Hillsborough County total.

The county elections office names three cities in Hillsborough County, Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant City, and county storm planning names other communities such as Town 'N Country, Thonotosassa and Apollo Beach.

The county Supervisor of Elections lists City of Tampa offices on its own ballot pages and tells voters to contact the City Clerk for offices up for election in Temple Terrace and Plant City (Hillsborough elections office). That split matters at election time: details on Temple Terrace and Plant City races come from each city clerk's office.

The county's own 2026 evacuation materials include separate 2025 versus 2026 zone maps for Thonotosassa, Apollo Beach and Town 'N Country (Hillsborough County evacuation information).

About 1,522,748 people lived in Hillsborough County in the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates, and the county's median age was 37.9 (Census DP05 for Hillsborough County).

Seniors are a modest share of Hillsborough: just 15.0 percent of Hillsborough County residents were 65 or older. Households had a median income of $79,540, and Hillsborough workers averaged 28.8 minutes getting to the job (Census DP03 for Hillsborough County).

Most Hillsborough County homes are owner occupied. The Census Bureau counted 630,692 housing units, of which 583,192 were occupied and 61.5 percent of those were lived in by their owners (Census DP04 for Hillsborough County). The middle owner-occupied home was valued at $371,500, and renters paid a median gross rent of $1,667 a month.

A seven-member Board of County Commissioners, currently chaired by Ken Hagan of District 2, sets Hillsborough County policy, and County Administrator Bonnie Wise runs day-to-day county operations.

Four commissioners represent single districts and three are elected countywide. The board roster lists Harry Cohen for District 1, Ken Hagan for District 2 as Chair, Gwen Myers for District 3, Christine Miller for District 4 as Vice Chair, and Donna Cameron Cepeda, Chris Boles and Joshua Wostal in the countywide District 5, 6 and 7 seats (Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners). The board page gives the county address as 601 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, and posts a 2026 master calendar of meetings, workshops and public hearings.

The County Administrator is the chief executive of Hillsborough County government. Bonnie M. Wise carries out the board's decisions, prepares the annual budget and oversees more than 5,200 County employees; her office line is (813) 272-5750 (Hillsborough County Administrator). Residents of Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant City also vote in city elections (Hillsborough elections office).

Hillsborough property values are set by Property Appraiser Bob Henriquez, tax bills and tags go through Tax Collector Nancy Millan, and voter services run through Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer, with the appraiser and elections offices both inside County Center in downtown Tampa.

The Hillsborough County Property Appraiser keeps its downtown Tampa office on the 15th Floor of County Center, 601 E. Kennedy Boulevard, open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, phone (813) 272-6100 (Hillsborough County Property Appraiser). The office offers homestead e-filing and runs a free Property Fraud Alert that watches documents recorded with the Clerk of the Circuit Court. Henriquez, the elected appraiser, was born and raised in Tampa, and the office notes that his great grandfather Enrique Henriquez was the last mayor of West Tampa.

The Hillsborough County Tax Collector's general office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., except Wednesdays, when offices open at 9 a.m. (Hillsborough County Tax Collector). That late Wednesday start catches people who arrive at 8. Self-service kiosks in some branches and in Publix supermarkets renew vehicle registrations without a branch visit.

Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer runs voting from the 16th Floor of County Center and from the Robert L. Gilder Elections Service Center at 2514 North Falkenburg Rd., main phone 813-744-5900 (Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections). For the 2026 general election, Hillsborough early voting runs Oct. 19 to Nov. 1 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and vote-by-mail requests are due by 5 p.m. on Oct. 22.

Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the Hillsborough County website and the Supervisor of Elections website.

Hillsborough County residents look up their storm evacuation zone, one of five, in the county's Hurricane Evacuation Assessment Tool (HEAT) and get warnings through HCFL Alert.

HEAT searches by owner name, address or parcel and tells Hillsborough residents which of the five evacuation zones a property falls in (Find Evacuation Information). For 2026 the county page posts its 2025 and 2026 zone maps side by side, with close-up comparisons for Thonotosassa, Apollo Beach and Town 'N Country, so a zone remembered from an earlier season is worth rechecking. The same page lists HART bus evacuation routes for people who need a ride to a shelter.

HCFL Alert is Hillsborough County's official mass notification system, and its help line is (813) 272-6602 (HCFL Alert).

The county's current flood insurance rating took effect on October 1, 2026. FEMA rates Hillsborough County (community 120112) a Community Rating System class 4 community effective that date, which means a 30 percent discount on flood premiums inside the special flood hazard area and 10 percent outside it (FEMA NFIP status for Hillsborough County). The county's currently effective flood map is dated October 7, 2021.

The Digital Towns Tampa guide is the Hillsborough County guide for now, and this table sends each common county question to its quick answer and the Tampa section with more.

The Tampa guide goes on to schools, utilities, parks, recreation, landmarks, agriculture, native plants, wildlife, the environment, events, sports, healthcare, industries and the economy, each tied to Hillsborough County sources. Temple Terrace and Plant City do not have separate Digital Towns guides yet.