Data · Florida owners
Who owns the most land in Florida, by type of owner
The largest single owners are public. On the 2026 rolls of all 67 counties, the state holds 11.2% of the acres listed, the federal government 10.6%, the five water management districts 6.7%, and counties, cities and school boards 5.1%: 34.4% in public hands. Companies and partnerships, taken together, hold 35.5%, and individual people 25.1%, although people own three of every four parcels.
The count
We sorted every parcel on the rolls by the kind of name in its owner line, then added up the acres the roll gives each one.
| Owner, by the name on the 2026 roll | Parcels | Acres | Share of acres |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal government | 41,971 | 3,824,618 | 10.6% |
| State of Florida | 69,114 | 4,025,980 | 11.2% |
| Water management districts | 20,617 | 2,400,644 | 6.7% |
| Counties, cities, school boards | 138,329 | 1,824,802 | 5.1% |
| Special districts and authorities | 23,662 | 252,317 | 0.7% |
| Tribal land | 248 | 44,360 | 0.1% |
| Companies and partnerships | 1,635,238 | 12,766,353 | 35.5% |
| Individuals | 8,276,509 | 9,028,357 | 25.1% |
| Trusts and estates | 688,554 | 1,276,015 | 3.5% |
| Nonprofits, churches, associations | 137,646 | 550,249 | 1.5% |
| All parcels | 11,033,469 | 35,995,834 | 100% |
The public share is lopsided the other way in parcels: 293,941 public parcels are 2.7% of the count and 34.4% of the acres. The average individual's parcel is about an acre; the average federal one is 91.
The largest public owners
| Public owner | Parcels | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| State of Florida: the trustees and state agencies | 61,693 | 3,987,655 |
| United States, all agencies | 41,971 | 3,824,618 |
| South Florida Water Management District | 12,344 | 1,102,670 |
| St. Johns River Water Management District | 2,691 | 580,722 |
| Southwest Florida Water Management District | 3,243 | 339,666 |
| Northwest Florida Water Management District | 902 | 214,984 |
| Suwannee River Water Management District | 1,281 | 154,232 |
| The 67 county governments | 81,422 | 1,231,619 |
| Cities, towns and villages | 52,118 | 513,949 |
| School boards | 4,789 | 79,234 |
Among county governments, Glades County holds 140,592 acres on its own roll, Hillsborough 65,104, Lee 57,768 and Miami-Dade 52,789. The Department of Transportation owns 7,029 parcels but only 25,997 acres, because most roads are rights of way rather than parcels.
Who the public owners are
Much of the state's land is titled to the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund. Section 253.03 vests the trustees with the lands the state and its agencies own, and section 253.02 names the four trustees: the Governor, the Attorney General, the Chief Financial Officer and the Commissioner of Agriculture. The rolls spell the board a dozen ways, from TIITF and IITF to "Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement", often followed by the agency that manages the tract, such as state parks or forestry.
The five districts named in section 373.069 buy land to store and protect water. Federal parcels carry the names of the Forest Service, the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the armed forces as well as the United States itself.
Government land pays no property tax under section 196.199, yet each tract still has a parcel on the county roll, with an owner, acres and a land use code. That is what makes the count possible.
How we counted
- Every parcel on the 2026 roll of each county, once, under the owner name the county printed first.
- The name is tested against word patterns in a fixed order: nonprofit words, then company words (LLC, INC, CORP, LP, LTD and the like), then federal, water district, state, tribal, local government and special district names, then trust words (TRUST, TR, ESTATE OF). Anything left counts as an individual.
- Acres are the roll's. Where the roll lists ten times the acres the parcel's mapped outline measures, 4,178 parcels in all, we used the outline: they listed 2,443,640 acres between them against 9,744 measured.
- The 56,757 subsurface parcels (code 093, mineral and oil rights) are left out, because they lie under land already counted.
Where it stops
- A name is not a deed. Patterns misread some names. A company whose name the roll cut short can land with the individuals, so the company share is a floor and the individual share a ceiling.
- Title, not use. Land titled to the trustees and managed by a state agency counts once, as state land.
- Water and roads. Lakes, sovereign submerged land and most rights of way have no parcel, or one with no acres. 1,444,730 parcels list no acres at all, 1,210,029 of them condominium and cooperative units, and count as zero.
- One doubtful parcel. Collier's roll gives one parcel in the county's name 222,592 acres and has no outline to check it against, so we left Collier out of the county ranking above.
- Not Florida's area. The total is the acres on the rolls, not the state's surface.
On Map Views
The search's "Owner name has" filter finds any owner's parcels in the counties you pick, and the results sort by acres, as the roll gives them or by outline. Tick "Public land and right-of-way" under Leave out to drop the parcels the roll codes as government land or right of way. Tap an owner to open every parcel with that name and mailing address across Florida, as in every Florida property one owner holds; for what each land use code means, see the DOR land use codes.
Each county property appraiser's 2026 roll is the authority on a parcel's owner and acres; the statutes are as published by the Florida Senate, read on 31 October 2026. The grouping by owner type is ours, made from names alone.