Polk County Board of County Commissioners

Polk County is strategically located in the center of the Florida peninsula, about equal distance from the east and west coast and half way between the Georgia-Florida border and the Southern tip of the peninsula. Polk lies on the Interstate-4 corridor, 25 miles east of Tampa and 35 miles southwest of Orlando. As the geographic center of Florida, it is estimated that more than 7.5 million people reside within a 100 mile radius of Polk County. This is one of the largest concentrations of population in the southeast.

Polk County's total population estimate for 2002 was 502,385 (an increase of 3.8 percent from the 2000 U.S. Census count of 483,924). Polk continues to rank as the eighth most populous county in Florida.