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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.

Saint James City within Lee County

Then and now

1956 to 1981

The 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.

Topographic sheet of Saint James City, surveyed 1981
Topographic sheet of Saint James City, surveyed 1956

Population over time

3 figures

Saint 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.

YearPeople Change
20004,105
20103,784-321 (-8%)
20203,876+92 (+2%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 13 printed sheets

Matched 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.

Fires near this place

32 since 1992

Regional 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
Natural15
Missing data/not specified/undetermined8
Equipment and vehicle use2
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Arson/incendiarism1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Debris and open burning1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 August 1994Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFlorida Forest Servicenot named
4 August 1998Natural50 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
1 August 2019Natural2.0 acresFlorida Forest ServiceSTRINGFELLOW SWAMP (36)
4 July 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresFlorida Forest Service2005-17-0386
24 July 2014Natural90 acresFlorida Forest ServiceRED MANGO (36)
18 July 1994Natural5.0 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
18 July 1992Natural6.0 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
18 July 1992Natural1.0 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Lee County

Storms near this place

3 since 2016

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 2017Tornado (EF0)Saint James City$5,000Emergency 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 2025FloodSaint James City-Flooding sensor reported up to one foot of inundation at site location in St. James City.
January 2016Thunderstorm WindSaint James City-Lee County Emergency Management reported some roof and carport damage to a home on Pine Island.

Every storm recorded in Lee County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Punta Rassa3.6 miles13
Sanibel4.5 miles13
Shell Point Village4.6 miles15
Ybel5.1 miles13
Flamingo Bay5.3 miles14
Wulfert5.4 miles14
Truckland5.9 miles14
Captiva6.1 miles14

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 CityAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2189154The 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.