Collier County, Florida

Collier County Education, Geography, and History

Collier County is a county located in the state of Florida. Based on the 2010 census, the population was 321,520. Collier County was created on May 8, 1923 from Lee County. The county seat is East Naples, where the county offices were moved from Everglades in 1962. This county is named for Barron Collier (1873-1939), an advertising entrepreneur who developed much of the land in southern Florida.

Collier County comprises the Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers-Naples, FL Combined Statistical Area

Etymology - Origin of Collier County Name

The county is named for Barron Collier, a New York City advertising mogul and real estate developer who had moved into Southwest Florida and established himself as a prominent land owner. He agreed to build the Tamiami Trail for what was then Lee County (Lee, Collier, Hendry, Glades & Charlotte Counties) in exchange for favorable consideration with the state legislature to have a county named for him.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: CensusBureau Quick Facts

Collier County History

Collier County was created in 1923 from Lee County. The county is named for Barron Collier, a New York City advertising mogul and real estate developer.

Geography: Land and Water

As reported by the Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,305 square miles (5,970 km²), of which, 2,025 square miles (5,246 km²) of it is land and 280 square miles (724 km²) of it (12.13%) is water.

 Collier county is located in south Florida. Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge, part of Big Cypress National Preserve, and part of the Everglades National Park are located in Collier county. Collier county is the second largest county in the state of Florida. Nearly the entire southeastern portion of the county lies within the Big Cypress National Preserve. The northernmost portion of Everglades National Park extends into the southern coastal part of the county.

Neighboring Counties

Bordering counties are as follows:

• North: Hendry County
• East: Broward County
• Southeast: Miami-Dade County
• South: Monroe County
• West: Gulf of Mexico
• Northwest: Lee County

Education

The county's public schools are operated by the District School Board of Collier County.

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