Compare two Florida counties
Pick any two of Florida's 67 counties, and if you like one industry, to see their businesses, jobs, payroll and average pay side by side, with each county's rank among all 67.
Hillsborough County pays $9,459 more per job than Orange County: $67,804 a year on average against $58,345. Orange County has 1.2 times as many jobs.
Hillsborough County and Orange County, County Business Patterns 2023. Ranks compare all 67 counties (1st is the highest); the difference column is the first county minus the second.
Side by side
| All industries | Hillsborough | Orange | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business establishments | Hillsborough42,9775th of 67 | Orange45,5884th of 67 | Difference−2,611 |
| Employees | Hillsborough697,6894th of 67 | Orange842,0282nd of 67 | Difference−144,339 |
| Annual payroll | Hillsborough$47.31 billion4th of 67 | Orange$49.13 billion2nd of 67 | Difference−$1.82 billion |
| Average annual pay | Hillsborough$67,8043rd of 67 | Orange$58,34510th of 67 | Difference+$9,459 |
| Residents | Hillsborough1,557,3134th of 67 | Orange1,501,2655th of 67 | Difference+56,048 |
| Jobs per 1,000 residents | Hillsborough4484th of 67 | Orange5611st of 67 | Difference−113 |
| Payroll per resident | Hillsborough$30,3773rd of 67 | Orange$32,7241st of 67 | Difference−$2,347 |
| Employees per establishment | Hillsborough16.24th of 67 | Orange18.51st of 67 | Difference−2.3 |
| Job change since 2019 | Hillsborough+10.9%29th of 67 | Orange+9.0%36th of 67 | Difference+1.9 pts |
| Largest industry | HillsboroughHealth care 14.2% of jobs | OrangeHotels & restaurants 15.2% of jobs | Difference— |
| Area | HillsboroughTampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL metro area | OrangeOrlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL metro area | Difference— |
Industry mix
Share of each county's jobs, by industry, largest first. Hatched: withheld by the Census Bureau.
How to use the comparer
Three choices, one table.
Choose a first and a second county. The table updates as soon as you change a box, and the address bar keeps your choice, so you can bookmark or share the comparison. The ⇄ button swaps the two sides. Pick an industry to add a second table for that sector alone (its jobs, pay, share of the county's jobs and location quotient) and to highlight it in the industry mix.
Every county page has a “Compare” link that opens this page with that county already filled in. Without JavaScript the page shows the example above (Hillsborough County and Orange County), and each county's full profile is one click away in the county list.
A walk-through with worked examples is in the guide How to use the Florida county comparer.
Comparisons to start with
- Miami-Dade vs Broward
- Duval vs Hillsborough
- Leon vs Alachua · health care and social assistance
- Monroe vs Walton · hotels and restaurants
- Hamilton vs Lafayette
- Polk vs Lake · transportation and warehousing
What the numbers mean
Definitions used in every row.
- Business establishments
- Single physical locations with paid employees. A chain with five stores in a county counts five times.
- Employees
- Paid employees in the pay period including March 12, 2023, full- and part-time. Self-employed people, most government workers, private households, crop and animal production and railroads are not counted.
- Annual payroll and average pay
- All wages paid in 2023; average pay is annual payroll ÷ employees. It is not adjusted for prices or hours.
- Per resident
- Divided by the county's July 1, 2023 population. Jobs are counted where the business is, residents where they live, so commuter counties score low.
- Job change since 2019
- Employees in March 2023 against March 2019.
- Withheld
- The Census Bureau does not publish a figure that could reveal a single business. Withheld means unknown, not zero.
Statistics for general information only. They describe businesses located in each county; they are not job, career, business-location or investment advice.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 and 2019; Population Estimates (Vintage 2024); OMB metro and micro area delineation, July 2023. Figures include noise added by the Census Bureau. How these figures are made.