Ridge Wood Heights, Florida
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1944 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Sarasota census division. It lies in ZIP code area 34231. The Survey maps it on the Sarasota quadrangle. 5,064 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 23 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1944 to 1994The same ground, surveyed 50 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1944 against another survey:
On record in Ridge Wood Heights
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register within a mile 1 record
The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.
Maine Colony Historic Districtlisted 2005 · 0.6 miles away
Population over time
2 figuresRidge Wood Heights grew from 4,795 to 5,064 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 4,795 | |
| 2020 | 5,064 | +269 (+6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 14 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1944 USGS Sarasota quadrangle1:24000
- 1944 USGS Sarasota quadrangle1:31680
- 1956 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1959 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1972 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000
- 1973 USGS Sarasota quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1979 USGS Sarasota quadrangle1:100000
- 1988 USGS St Petersburg quadrangle1:250000
- 1994 USGS Sarasota quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
30 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 30 fires within 5 miles of Ridge Wood Heights between 1992 and 2019, burning about 189 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 8 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 7 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 4 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 4 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 August 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | 58-PROCTOR FIRE-0568 |
| 19 July 1993 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 25 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 4 June 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 11 June 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | SAWYER RD. (58) |
| 11 June 1998 | Railroad operations and maintenance | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 1 June 1994 | Natural | 15 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 28 May 2001 | Natural | 3.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 20 April 2005 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | 15-211 MCINTOSH MIDDLE FIRE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Ridge Wood Heights: 1 plant. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Phosphorus-Phosphates. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piney Point Nu-Gulf | Phosphorus-Phosphates | Plant |
Storms near this place
3 since 2008Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ridge Wood Heights in 3 storm reports between 2008 and 2009: 1 hail, 1 lightning, 1 thunderstorm wind. The reports record 2 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ridge Wood Heights | 1 hurt, $1,000 | Several small tree limbs snapped, shopping carts were turned over and the awning of a grocery store was damaged in Sarasota. A woman pushing a shopping cart and holding an umbrella was knocked down while walking to her car. She was transported to the hospital with minor injuries. |
| June 2008 | Lightning | Ridge Wood Heights | 1 hurt | A 28 year old man was struck and injured by lightning while wade fishing in the Gulf off of Siesta Key. |
| August 2008 | Hail | Ridge Wood Heights | - | Penny to quarter size hail was reported along Bee Ridge Road from Beneva Road east to Interstate 75. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Gate Ridge | 0.9 miles | 13 | |
| South Sarasota | 1.0 miles | 14 | |
| Sunnyland | 1.1 miles | 13 | |
| South Trail | 1.2 miles | 14 | |
| Southgate | 1.4 miles | 14 | |
| Bee Ridge | 1.7 miles | 13 | |
| Gulf Gate Estates | 1.9 miles | 14 | |
| Sarasota Heights | 2.0 miles | 14 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Ridge Wood Heights | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1940377 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1867196. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.









