Saint James City, Florida
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1956 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Pine Island census division. It lies in ZIP code area 33956. It lies near Sister Keys. The Survey maps it on the Sanibel quadrangle. 3,876 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1956 to 1981The same ground, surveyed 25 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Population over time
3 figuresSaint James City fell from 4,105 to 3,876 between 2000 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 4,105 | |
| 2010 | 3,784 | -321 (-8%) |
| 2020 | 3,876 | +92 (+2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 13 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.
- 1956 USGS Charlotte Harbor quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Sanibel quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1959 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1972 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Sanibel quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
32 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 32 fires within 5 miles of Saint James City between 1992 and 2020, burning about 547 acres in total. 15 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 15 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 August 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 4 August 1998 | Natural | 50 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 1 August 2019 | Natural | 2.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | STRINGFELLOW SWAMP (36) |
| 4 July 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | 2005-17-0386 |
| 24 July 2014 | Natural | 90 acres | Florida Forest Service | RED MANGO (36) |
| 18 July 1994 | Natural | 5.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 18 July 1992 | Natural | 6.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 18 July 1992 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
3 since 2016Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Saint James City in 3 storm reports between 2016 and 2025: 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2017 | Tornado (EF0) | Saint James City | $5,000 | Emergency management reported and broadcast media received video of a tornado that crossed the southern point of Pine Island. The tornado then became a waterspout as it moved east and into Fort Myers. On Pine Island, the tornado damaged a carport. |
| August 2025 | Flood | Saint James City | - | Flooding sensor reported up to one foot of inundation at site location in St. James City. |
| January 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Saint James City | - | Lee County Emergency Management reported some roof and carport damage to a home on Pine Island. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Punta Rassa | 3.6 miles | 13 | |
| Sanibel | 4.5 miles | 13 | |
| Shell Point Village | 4.6 miles | 15 | |
| Ybel | 5.1 miles | 13 | |
| Flamingo Bay | 5.3 miles | 14 | |
| Wulfert | 5.4 miles | 14 | |
| Truckland | 5.9 miles | 14 | |
| Captiva | 6.1 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 Saint James City | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2189154 | 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 290196. 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.
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.






