Collier

Formed May 8, 1923 (62^nd county)

Collier County (375,760), Naples (19,115)                

A Modern style concrete building is the county courthouse.  The facility was built in 1962 and added to in 1974 and 1990.  The structure is located outside of Naples on Espinal Boulevard off Pulling Road.  United States Highway 41 is one block south of the site.  Bail Horton and Associates provided the designs.  An Administration Center was built in 1975 and a North Government city was added in 2006 in North Naples.  Everglades City (1823) and Naples (1962) have been the county seat. 

Collier County government consists of a manager, sheriff, and appraiser (executive).  It has 5 Commissioners (legislative.)  Thirty-one Circuit Court Judges serve Collier, Charlotte, Glades, Hendry, and Lee counties and Six County Court Judges, clerk, and county attorney serve Collier County (judicial.) The county is located in the southwest Florida on the Gulf of Mexico.  The center of the county is 26.4 miles East-Northeast of Naples nearer Orangetree.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Hendry, Broward, Dade, and Monroe counties and the Gulf of Mexico and Lee County.  There was a 1926 courthouse in Everglades City.  The county was created on May 8, 1923 from Lee County as the 62^nd county.  It was named for real estate developer Barron Collier.  The county seat is named for Naples, Italy. 

The area of the county is 2026 square miles.  It is 2 out of 67 counties in the state.  It ranks 19 out of 67 in population in the state.  It has a density of 185.5 persons per square mile making it 34 out of 67 in the state.  Collier County has 9.4% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 75 enters from the north, Lee County, and exits to the east, Broward County.  United States Highway 41 also comes in from Lee County but goes east into Dade County.  The county shape is rectangular in the east and south, two pillars in the north, and hooked in the west.  Naples is located in the northwest quarter on the Gulf of Mexico.  Naples is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 5.1% of the county population.  The county is pronounced CUL-YUR.  This county is in the Naples-Marco Island Metropolitan Statistical Area.