Orange County is a county located in the central part of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 1,429,908, making it the fifth-most populous county in Florida and the 28th-most populous county in the United States. Its county seat is Orlando, which, along with it being the county's largest city, is the core of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2.67 million in 2020.
As of 2022, Orange County has a gross domestic product of $115 billion, the third-largest GDP of Florida's 67 counties and the 27th-largest for the nation's 3,033 counties. The county is a tourist, economic, and cultural hub for the Central Florida region. Popular destinations within the county include Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, SeaWorld Orlando, Icon Park, Kia Center, Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, Orlando Museum of Art, and many other attractions. It is the home to the University of Central Florida (UCF), which as of Fall 2023 had a student population of 69,320, making it the fourth-largest on-campus student body of any public university in the United States. The county is home to other notable colleges, including Rollins College and Valencia College. Despite rapid development countywide, swaths of nature still do exist. There are many lakes within the county, most notable of such being Lake Apopka. Wekiwa Springs is a 7,000-acre (28 km2) state park, that features natural springs, trails, and campsites.
The land that is Orange County was part of the first land to come up from below the Early Oligocene sea 33.9–28.4 million years ago and is known as Orange Island. Orange County's Rock Spring location is a Pleistocene fossil-bearing area and has yielded a vast variety of birds and mammals including giant sloth, mammoth, camel, and the dire wolf dating around 1.1 million years ago.
19th century to mid-20th century
Immediately following the transfer of Florida from the Spanish to the United States in 1821, Governor Andrew Jackson created two counties: Escambia to the west of the Suwannee River and St. Johns to the east. In 1824, the area to the south of St. Johns County was organized as Mosquito County, and Enterprise was named its county seat. This large county took up much of central Florida. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized relocation of the Seminole people from Florida to Oklahoma; this resulted in pushback from the Seminole community, leading to the Second Seminole War. In 1842, a bill was passed in the Florida Territorial Council to rename Mosquito County to Leigh Read County, however, this renaming never took place. Two years later, in 1844, residents of Mosquito County petitioned the Territorial Council to rename the county Harrison County, in honor of President William Henry Harrison, who had only served 31 days in office before dying of Pneumonia. The petition was started in response to county residents finding the name unappealing. In 1845 when Florida became a state, the county was renamed Orange County. After the population increased in the region, the legislature organized several counties, such as Osceola (1887), Seminole (1913), Lake (1887), and Volusia (1854), from its territory.
Early on, the county greatly suffered, due to the Union blockade, but things greatly improved during Reconstruction. A boom in population, resulting from the incorporation of the Town of Orlando in 1875, greatly changed the demographics of the county. Orlando, establishing itself as a city in 1885, experienced rapid growth from 1875 to 1895, due to it becoming the hub of Florida's citrus industry. The fruit that constituted the county's main commodity crop was the impetus to the aforementioned county's renaming. The dark-green foliage of orange trees filled the county, as did the scent of the orange blossoms when in bloom. Fewer commercial orange groves remained by the end of the twentieth century. The majority of groves were destroyed by the freezing temperatures that occurred in December 1983, January 1985, and December 1989, the worst since 1899.
During the post-Reconstruction period, white people committed a high rate of racial violence against black people in Orange County; racial terrorism was used to re-establish and maintain white supremacy. Whites lynched 33 African Americans here from 1877 to 1950; most were killed in the decades around the turn of the 20th century. This was the highest total of any county in the state, and sixth highest of any county in the country. Florida had the highest per-capita rate of lynchings of any state in the South, where the great majority of these extrajudicial murders took place.
Among the terrorist lynchings was the death of Julius "July" Perry of Ocoee, whose body was found November 3, 1920, hanged from a lightpole in Orlando, near the house of a judge known to be sympathetic to black voting. But this was part of a much larger story of KKK and other white attempts to suppress black voting in Ocoee and the state. African Americans had organized for a year to increase voter turnout for the 1920 presidential election, with organizations helping prepare residents for voter registration, paying for poll taxes, and similar actions. On Election Day in Ocoee, blacks were turned away from the polls. Perry, a prosperous farmer, was suspected of sheltering Mose Norman, an African-American man who had tried to vote. After Norman was twice turned away, white violence broke out, resulting in the Ocoee massacre, leaving an estimated 50 to 60 African-Americans dead and all the properties destroyed. Many blacks fled from Ocoee to save their lives, and the town became all-white. Voting efforts were suppressed for decades.
Economically destroyed at the turn of the century by the decimation of the citrus industry, many farmers walked away from the region. The freeze caused many farmers in central Florida to move to other warm climates, such as to the Caribbean or to California (such as the similarly named Orange County, California). Others awaited other opportunities. One of the region's major land owners and growers was the Tropicana company. They withdrew rather than try to come back from these seemingly endless generational decimation. With no realistic avenues for agricultural use of this rural land, and Florida's continuing strong population growth and its attendant needs (aided and supported by the success of nearby Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Florida), these areas began to be developed for housing and other industries, especially after World War II.
In 1962 Orlando Jetport was built. The predecessor of modern-day Orlando International Airport, it was built from a portion of the McCoy Air Force Base. By 1970, four major airlines (Delta Air Lines, National Airlines, Eastern Airlines, and Southern Airways) had begun providing scheduled flights. McCoy Air Force Base officially closed in 1975, in which the airport still retains the former Air Force Base airport code (MCO).
In 1965, Walt Disney announced plans to build Walt Disney World. The renowned resort opened in October 1971. This had a seismic impact to the region, resulting in an explosive growth in the county's population and in its economy. The success of Disney World, allowed for other theme parks and entertainment attractions to open and thrive in the county, such as Universal Orlando and SeaWorld Orlando. The county now has more theme parks and entertainment attractions than anywhere else in the world.
In the 21st century, the county's economy has since diversified. Despite the rapid development in the county, thanks to gentrification relics of the historic core of "Old Orlando" still reside in downtown Orlando (along Church Street, between Orange Avenue and Garland Avenue), as well as within Orange County communities outside city limits, such as in Eatonville, Windermere, and Winter Park.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,003 square miles (2,600 km2), of which 903 square miles (2,340 km2) is land and 100 square miles (260 km2) (10.0%) is water. Orange County is about 89 feet (27 m) above sea level. The county is bordered by Osceola County by the south, on the southwest by Polk County, on the west by Lake County, on the north by Seminole County, on the northeast by Volusia County, and on the east by Brevard County.