Osceola County is in central Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 388,656. Its headquarters are in Kissimmee. Osceola County is part of the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida, metropolitan area.
Osceola County Property Appraiser, with 54.3% of the Hispanic population, is one of three Hispanic-majority counties in Florida due to its large Puerto Rican-American population. It is also the 12th most populous Hispanic-majority county in the country.
Osceola County was incorporated in 1887. Florida was divided into two counties on July 21, 1821: Escambia County to the west and St. John to the east. In 1824, the county of St. Southern John’s became Mosquito County, with Enterprise as the county seat. In 1844, Brevard County was separated from Mosquito County.
A new name was given to Mosquito County in 1845 after Florida became a state. The counties of Orange and Brevard were merged on May 12, 1887, to form Osceola County. Osceola County extended up to Lake Okeechobee before being absorbed by Okeechobee County in 1917.
Over the past few decades, Osceola County has seen many immigrants from Puerto Rico, an unincorporated country area. According to the 2000 United States Census, Puerto Ricans were the largest self-reported ancestry group.
The Osceola County government is governed by three elected groups, each independently operating separate branches of the county government. These include the five-member district commission, five separate constitutional officers, and several court officers. According to state law, the county commission funds the budgets of all county governments, including independently elected constitutional and judicial officers and the commission’s own departments. Each Independent Agent may, in its sole discretion, administer its programs. The district committee exercises control only over its departments.