Duval County

Jacksonville takes the cake as Florida’s most populated city and even carries the title of the largest city by area in the United States. Jacksonville is the seat of Duval County which has a population of around 937,934 as of the 2017 census. Duval County was established in 1822 and was named after William Pope Duval who was the governor of Florida Territory between the span of 1822 and 1834.

The Duval area of Jacksonville, Florida has been settled in by a variety of cultures and peoples thousands of years before European contact. In fact, archaeologists have excavated remains of some of the oldest pottery found in the United States within the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve. Before the Europeans arrived, the coastal areas of Florida were inhabited by a group known as the Mocama. By the time the Europeans arrived, a lot of what is now Duval County was controlled by one of the region’s most powerful tribes, the Saturiwa. Eventually, Duval County became home to the French colony of Fort Caroline and European settlement began growing during the 18th century. With the growth of European inhabitants, Cowford was established and was later renamed to Jacksonville.

Duval County was officially created from St. Johns County in 1822 and covered an area from the Suwannee River to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1824, the Alachua and Nassau counties were created, and Clay County was created from part of Duval County in 1858.

As of October 1, 1968, the Duval County government was consolidated with the Jacksonville city government. However, some Duval County cities such as Atlantic Beach, Jacksonville Beach, Neptune Beach, and Baldwin maintain their own municipal governments and are not included in the corporate limits of Jacksonville.

The population of Duval County has undoubtedly grown over the years. Starting with a population of 1,970 in the year 1830, the county in Jacksonville is now home to around 953,165 as of 2017. According to the 2010 Census Bureau for Ethnic and Race Demographics, Duval County had a population where about 60.9% of inhabitants were white, 29.5% were black, 7.6% were Hispanic, 4.2% were Asian, along with some American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and Pacific Islanders.

Also as of 2010, just under 88% of all Duval County residents spoke English as their first language, while around 6% spoke Spanish, and the last 6% spoke other languages, such as Tagalog, Arabic, and French Creole as their mother language. In total, just under 13% of Duval County’s population spoke languages other than English.

According to the Secretary of State’s office, in 2015 there were 537,990 voters in Jacksonville’s Duval County. About 41% of those voters were democratic, 37% were Republican, 19% were labeled as Independent, and just over 3% were affiliated with Third Parties. Unlike some of Florida’s other counties though, Duval County has a more conservative electorate which has tended to support the Republicans at the State and National levels for the past several years.