Florida's counties, compared

Statewide picture

Between FY2019 and FY2024, the 66 counties' combined population grew 8.9% and prices (CPI-U South) rose 23.6%; together they account for 34.6%. Summing each county's own baseline gives 34.2%, because counties grew at different rates. Combined property tax revenue (64 counties reporting it in every year) grew 52.2%; at the baseline it would be $15.7B in FY2024 against an actual $17.8B, and over FY2020–FY2024 property tax revenue ran $4.2B above the baseline path in total. The property tax figures here are from the counties' financial reports and cover every county levy (operating, MSTUs, dependent districts and voted debt); the operating-levy figures in the rate tiles and tables below cover the countywide operating rate only, which is why they are smaller. Combined county outlays (all governmental spending plus net transfers out, excluding refunding escrow) grew 52.0%. Federal grant revenue to the counties went from $1.5B in FY2019 to $4.0B in FY2021 and $2.7B in FY2024.

Ranked by property tax growth above baseline, FY2019–FY2024

Each bar is the county's property tax revenue growth minus its own population-and-inflation baseline, in percentage points. Gray bars are below baseline. Statewide median: +17.7 points. A dagger marks a county with a data note affecting the years compared. Click a county for its page.

Where a public record sets a limit on the levy

A county may operate under a provision in its own charter, an ordinance or a statute that constrains how much property tax revenue can grow. Where such a provision is in a public record, it is stated here with its source next to the county's own figures; the page draws no conclusion from it. One such county has been located.

Brevard — the county charter (s. 2.9.3.1) limits growth in ad valorem revenue to the lesser of 3% or the change in CPI, excluding new construction, unless a supermajority finds an emergency or critical need (Brevard County Charter, s. 2.9.3.1). In the figures on this page: property tax revenue grew 19.4% between FY2019 and FY2024 against a 36.2% baseline, 16.9 points below it (#65 of 65 (the lowest)); county outlays per resident were $1,111 in FY2024 (#65 of 66 (the second-lowest); statewide median $1,770); property tax revenue per resident was $425 (#54 of 65; median $666); the county operating millage went from 3.9456 to 2.9207 mills between FY2019 and FY2025 while taxable value grew 80.3%. Read the feature: The Brevard Example →

Ranked by property tax revenue above the baseline path, per resident, FY2020–FY2024

For each county: the sum over FY2020–FY2024 of property tax revenue minus what it would have been at the county's own population-and-inflation baseline, divided by FY2024 population. Gray bars are below the path. This ranking measures the whole path and the one above measures the end points, so a county can be above its baseline in FY2024 yet below the path over the five years, or the reverse. A dagger marks a county with a data note affecting the years compared.

All counties, FY2024

Click any column heading to sort. Statewide medians: property tax per resident $666; county outlays per resident $1,770. A dagger (†) marks a county whose page carries a data note affecting its FY2019, FY2023 or FY2024 figures — most often a year in which the state filing changed what it included; read that county's rank with its data note. "County outlays" is all governmental spending plus net transfers out, so counties that fund constitutional officers by transfer are counted on the same footing as those that report them by function.

Key spending lines per resident, FY2024

The account lines people ask about most, per resident, FY2024, operating funds. "Sheriff-related" is law enforcement + detention + other public safety (lines that counties move between); "Fire and EMS" is fire control + ambulance; "Parks and libraries" is parks, libraries, cultural services and special recreation facilities; "Financial and administrative" (account 513) is where most counties report the clerk, tax collector, property appraiser and finance. A county that funds its sheriff by transfer rather than by function shows a low sheriff figure here — see the dagger and the county's data notes. Click a heading to sort.

Ranked by the homeowner difference: county operating levy on a $300,000 homestead, FY2024

For each county: the County Commission's countywide operating levy on a $300,000 taxable-value homestead at the adopted FY2024 rate, minus the same levy at the county's own FY2019 baseline rate (the FY2019 operating levy grown by population and inflation, on FY2024's taxable value). Each label gives the FY2024 difference, then the FY2020–FY2024 cumulative difference. Gray bars are below the baseline rate. An illustration of the rate, not anyone's bill: it leaves out the school board, cities, MSTUs and special districts, and Save Our Homes caps the yearly increase in a homestead's assessed value at 3% or CPI, whichever is lower. Source: Florida DOR county profiles.

Property tax rates, all counties

County Commission countywide operating millage from the Florida Department of Revenue's county profiles (roll year + 1 = fiscal year). Under Florida's Truth in Millage law (s. 200.065, F.S.), the rolled-back rate is the rate that would raise the prior year's revenue from the same properties; a rate above it must be advertised as a tax increase. The baseline rate is the FY2019 operating levy grown by population and inflation, divided by the year's taxable value. The newest roll is the 2025 roll (FY2026) where the profile is internally consistent; nine counties' 2025-roll profiles are not, and their newest reliable roll is shown. The 2025-roll profiles print a rolled-back rate computed from the prior year's maximum majority-vote rate rather than from the adopted rate, so FY2026 is left out of the rolled-back count. Volusia is shown without a baseline or homeowner figure because the countywide operating rate moved in one year in a way consistent with a change in the structure of the levy (see the county page). Click a heading to sort.

Method

"At the baseline" figures are what an amount would be if it had grown at exactly the county's population-and-inflation rate since FY2019; "above the baseline path" sums the yearly difference between the actual figure and that path. They describe the arithmetic, not what a county could or should have done. Figures are actual revenues and expenditures as each county reported them to the State of Florida in its Annual Financial Report (s. 218.32, F.S.), compiled by the Florida Legislature's Office of Economic and Demographic Research; they are not adopted budgets and not an audit. FY2024 is used for all comparisons because it is the most recent year every county has filed; each county's own page runs to its latest year. Governmental funds only (general, special revenue, debt service, capital projects, permanent); "operating spending" is general, special revenue and permanent funds before transfers out. Population is the countywide estimate published with each filing; estimates were rebased to the 2020 Census beginning with FY2021 filings, so the FY2020-to-FY2021 step in the filings mixes real change with the rebase; for each county the real change that year is taken as the median of its other yearly changes in the period, and FY2020-and-earlier estimates are rescaled so that is the step (the rebase itself is not counted as growth or decline). The baseline grows the FY2019 figure by population and by CPI-U South (fiscal-year average). "County outlays" is all governmental-fund spending including transfers out, minus transfers received from other governmental funds and payments to refunded-bond escrow. Millage rates and taxable values are the County Commission's countywide operating figures from the Florida Department of Revenue's annual county profiles, extracted from the published PDFs and checked for internal consistency (the valuation arithmetic and the rate labels; taxable value × rate is also compared with the reported county levy, which can legitimately exceed the operating levy where a county levies MSTUs or voted debt, so that comparison decides only whether the reported levy figures are quoted). A roll whose valuation or rate figures are inconsistent is left out, and rates are not compared across a year in which the operating rate changed by 15% or more while the county's reported property tax revenue moved 20 or more points differently from the operating levy (a pattern consistent with part of the levy moving to a separately set rate). The "baseline rate" is the FY2019 operating levy (taxable value × adopted rate) grown by population and inflation, divided by that year's taxable value; the homeowner figures apply the rates to fixed taxable values and are illustrations of the rate, not bills. Dixie County's property tax is not reported in its FY2023 and FY2024 filings, so it has no FY2024 property tax figures or cumulative figure here; counties marked with a dagger carry a data note on their page about the years compared here. Prepared by Beachside Automation with software-assisted analysis and human review; this page describes what the public records show and makes no policy recommendation.

• Florida EDR — County Government Revenues and Expenditures
• CPI-U, All Items, South region (BLS CUUR0300SA0), via FRED
• Florida Department of Revenue — County and Municipal Property Tax Data (county profiles, 2017–2025 tax rolls)