Real Estate Education
St. Johns County Is the Fastest-Growing County in Florida. Here's the Data Behind It.
Ben Cote • July 16, 2026
St. Johns County leads all 67 Florida counties in population growth at 4.42% annually. Here's the actual data — jobs, income, migration, and taxes — and what it means if you're thinking about buying here.
St. Johns County Is the Fastest-Growing County in Florida. Here's the Data Behind It.
By Ben Cote | NE Florida Realtor | eXp Realty
What You'll Learn From This Post
- Where St. Johns County actually ranks among Florida's 67 counties
- The population and job growth numbers behind the ranking
- Why the growth is coming from families rather than retirees
- What the tax structure and income data actually look like
- What this growth means if you're thinking about buying here
There's a lot of noise out there about which part of Florida is growing fastest. Everybody has an opinion. Most of it is based on what somebody heard from somebody else.
So let's skip the opinions and look at the actual data.
St. Johns County is the fastest-growing county in Florida. Not one of the fastest. The fastest. And when you look at what's underneath that number, the story gets a lot more interesting than a simple ranking.
The Ranking Is Not Close
From 2020 to 2026, St. Johns County posted an annualized population growth rate of 4.42% — the highest of any county in Florida. Osceola County came in second at 4.09%. Walton County third at 4.08%.
Of Florida's 67 counties, 63 are growing. St. Johns County leads all of them.
Zoom out further and the trend holds. Between 2014 and 2024, St. Johns County's population grew by 53.6%. Since 2000, the county's population has increased in 24 out of 24 years. Not most years. Every year.
Since 2020 alone, the county added 71,585 residents — a 25.8% increase — reaching a total population of 348,690 as of 2025.
That's not a trend. That's a sustained, multi-decade pattern that has never reversed.
The Growth Is Coming From Somewhere Specific
Here's the part most people miss.
Population growth can come from a few different places. Births outpacing deaths. International immigration. Or domestic migration — people moving in from other parts of the country.
Between 2023 and 2024, St. Johns County's growth was driven primarily by people moving from other states. Domestic migration brought in roughly 11,700 more people from other U.S. counties than left. International immigration added about 2,000. In total the county grew by 13,400 people in a single year — a 4.2% annual increase.
That distinction matters enormously.
People aren't ending up in St. Johns County by accident. They're not here because they were born here. They are actively choosing this county over every other option available to them in the entire country — and they're doing it in numbers that put this county at the top of the state.
This Is a Family Market, Not a Retirement Market
Florida has a reputation. And for a lot of the state, that reputation is accurate — retirees moving in, an aging population, a market built around a specific stage of life.
St. Johns County does not fit that profile.
The median age in St. Johns County is 44.2 years. That's a working-age, family-raising demographic. The county's labor force has grown 41.8% over the past decade. Jobs grew 25.7% between 2020 and 2025 — from 91,021 to 114,406 — outpacing the national job growth rate of 10.6% by more than 15 percentage points.
The 2024 median household income in St. Johns County was $109,839.
And 32% of residents hold a bachelor's degree — 10.1% above the national average. 95.1% of the population aged 25 and older has a high school education, compared to 90.4% statewide.
This is an educated, employed, family-stage population that is growing because people in their prime earning and child-raising years keep choosing to move here.
If you're a family in New England wondering whether Northeast Florida is "the retiree part of Florida" — the data says no. Emphatically.
The Financial Structure Underneath It
Growth alone doesn't tell the whole story. What makes a county sustainable long-term is whether the underlying economics work for the people living there.
Here's what St. Johns County offers:
No state personal income tax — Florida-wide.
No local gas tax.
No utility franchise tax.
A 0.5% local option sales tax that supports schools.
And real estate taxes that are among the lowest in Northeast Florida, with a millage rate of 13.4686 for residents in unincorporated areas of the county.
The county's average unemployment rate in 2025 was 4.2%, with a labor force of 158,270.
Low taxes. Strong employment. High household income. A growing job base. That combination is exactly why the migration numbers look the way they do.
What This Means If You're Thinking About Buying
Here's the honest real estate takeaway.
When a county leads an entire state in population growth for years running — and that growth is driven by educated, employed families choosing to move in from other states — demand for housing follows. That's not speculation. That's arithmetic.
More people. More jobs. More households. The same finite amount of land, with a meaningful portion of it protected as conservation.
The families who moved to St. Johns County five and ten years ago bought before the county became the fastest-growing in Florida. The families moving here now are buying into a market that has already proven its trajectory — and the data suggests that trajectory isn't slowing.
None of this means prices go up in a straight line forever. Markets move. Interest rates move. Inventory cycles. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
But the fundamentals underneath this county — schools, jobs, income, tax structure, and sustained in-migration from across the country — are as strong as any market in Florida. And that's not an opinion. It's what the numbers say.
Thinking about a move to St. Johns County and want to understand what the data actually means for your specific situation? That's exactly the kind of conversation worth having before you start touring homes.
👉 thecotecollective.com/relocate
Ben Cote | NE Florida Realtor | eXp Realty | 802.734.2397