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The Villages, Florida

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1979. It stands in the Wildwood census division. It lies in ZIP code area 32159. The Survey maps it on the Lady Lake quadrangle. 79,077 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 75 feet above sea level.

The Villages within Sumter County

Then and now

1955 to 1979

The same ground, surveyed 24 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of The Villages, surveyed 1979
Topographic sheet of The Villages, surveyed 1955

Population over time

2 figures

The Villages grew from 51,442 to 79,077 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.

YearPeople Change
201051,442
202079,077+27,635 (+54%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 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

66 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 66 fires within 5 miles of The Villages between 1992 and 2017, burning about 593 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 5 were 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
Railroad operations and maintenance25
Debris and open burning16
Missing data/not specified/undetermined10
Arson/incendiarism5
Misuse of fire by a minor5
Equipment and vehicle use2
Fireworks1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Natural1

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
7 September 2007Debris and open burning4.0 acresFlorida Forest Service60/PELZER/1060
24 September 2002Railroad operations and maintenance2.5 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
2 September 1993Natural3.0 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
16 September 1997Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreFlorida Forest Servicenot named
15 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFlorida Forest ServiceHIGHWAY 42 (42)
30 August 1997Debris and open burning50 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
20 August 2007Debris and open burning2.0 acresFlorida Forest Service35/WOODGATE FIRE/0994
19 July 1997Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreFlorida Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Sumter County

Mines and quarries near this place

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of The Villages: 2 unknowns, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand, Peat. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Every working recorded in Sumter County

Storms near this place

5 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names The Villages in 5 storm reports between 2008 and 2022: 2 heavy rain, 1 lightning, 1 hail, 1 funnel cloud. 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
August 2009LightningThe Villages$200,000Lightning struck a house and caused a fire that destroyed the entire home.
July 2022Funnel CloudThe Villages-Trained spotter sent video and picture of a water spout over Lake Sumter in the Villages.
June 2014HailThe Villages-A trained storm spotter in The Villages reported penny to nickel size hail falling. The hail lasted approximately 3 min.
March 2010Heavy RainThe Villages-A mesonet station 4 miles southwest of The Villages reported 6.19 inches of rain throughout the event causing minor street flooding. In addition, the cooperative station near Bushnell reported 3.68 inches of rain.
August 2008Heavy RainThe Villages-The observer recorded 7.88 inches of rain.

Every storm recorded in Sumter 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
Cherry Lake1.6 miles13
Oxford4.1 miles18
Moreland Park5.3 miles18
Wildwood6.3 miles19
Orange Home7.5 miles14
Long Hammock7.6 miles18
Royal7.7 miles18
Bamboo7.7 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 The VillagesAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q279537The 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 1828956. 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.