Tampa Map
Tampa faces the largest open-water estuary in Florida, and everything about the city — the port, the peninsulas, the bridges — follows the shape of that bay. About 415,000 in 2024.
Where is Tampa?
Tampa is on the west coast of Florida, at the head of Tampa Bay, roughly 25 miles inland from the open Gulf. St. Petersburg sits on the peninsula across the bay, reached by long causeways rather than a short drive. Orlando is about 85 miles northeast, Jacksonville some 200 miles north, and Miami roughly 280 miles southeast on the other coast.
Tampa at a glance
| State | Florida |
| County | Hillsborough County |
| Population | 414,547 (2024 Census estimate) |
| Rank among US cities | No. 49 of the 100 largest |
| Time zone | Eastern Time |
| Region | South (South Atlantic division) |
Another 607 residents would lift Tampa past Tulsa into No. 48; 10,875 fewer would put it behind Arlington at No. 50. Within Florida it comes third of eight, behind Jacksonville and Miami. Against Florida's 23.37 million residents, though, that is only about 1.8%. It holds about 26% of Hillsborough County's 1,581,426 residents.
Tampa in Florida
Tampa is the seat of Hillsborough County, while St. Petersburg lies in Pinellas County, the most densely settled county in Florida and one of the smallest — the Florida county map shows the two facing each other across the water. The Tampa Bay metro and the Orlando area together hold the middle of the peninsula, with Miami far to the southeast. See the Florida state page for the whole state.
The bay, the phosphate country and hurricanes
Tampa Bay is a drowned river valley, wide and shallow, and it had to be dredged into shipping channels before a serious port could work here. What moves through it is mostly phosphate: the deposits south and east of the city in Polk and Hillsborough counties are among the largest worked anywhere, and the fertiliser made from them is the port's main export. The bay's funnel shape is also its hazard — a storm surge driven up it has nowhere to spread, and the flat Gulf coast around it lies only a few feet above sea level.
Cities near Tampa
Related pages: St. Petersburg, Orlando, Cape Coral, Port St. Lucie and Miami. The Gulf coast page runs west from here to Texas.