Duval County, Florida: County Guide

Duval County and the City of Jacksonville have operated as a single merged government since October 1, 1968, so the Mayor of Jacksonville and the Jacksonville City Council do the work a county commission does elsewhere in Florida.

The merger was decided at the ballot box. In August 1967, residents of Jacksonville and Duval County gave consolidation 65 percent of the votes cast, and Consolidation Day on October 1, 1968 replaced the duplication of two governmental bodies with a single local government (Jacksonville Sheriff's Office history). The same Duval County history records that the Duval County Road Patrol and the Jacksonville Police Department were merged in the change, so one Jacksonville Sheriff's Office serves the consolidated city.

The joint arrangement shows up in small places. The footer of the city website still reads Official City of Jacksonville and Duval County Government (City of Jacksonville), and the constitutional officers a resident deals with, such as the Duval County Tax Collector and the Duval County Property Appraiser, publish their pages on the same coj.net site as city departments.

Duval County spans 762.623 land square miles plus 155.841 square miles of water, according to the 2024 Census county gazetteer (Census gazetteer). Water makes up about 17 percent of the Duval County total.

Duval County holds the consolidated City of Jacksonville plus four other local governments that the county elections office lists separately: Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Jacksonville Beach and Baldwin.

On its Government Offices page, the county elections office links each of them: Atlantic Beach, Baldwin, City of Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach and Neptune Beach (Duval elections office).

The Tax Collector's branch list names areas across the county: the Yates main branch, plus Mandarin, Neptune Beach, North Main Street, Roosevelt, Soutel, St Johns Square on Beach Boulevard and Westside (Duval County Tax Collector). City meeting notices for October 14, 2026 placed a planning committee meeting at the Oceanway Senior Center, 12215 Sago Ave. W. (City of Jacksonville calendar).

Duval County had an estimated 1,023,153 residents and a median resident age of 36.9, according to the five-year American Community Survey covering 2020 through 2024 (ACS 2024 DP05 for Duval County).

Only 15.3 percent of Duval County residents were 65 or older in that release. Median household income was $71,277, and the average Duval County commute took 24.1 minutes (ACS 2024 DP03 for Duval County).

Renting is common in Duval County. Of 415,128 occupied homes, 58.2 percent were owner occupied, so roughly four in ten Duval households rent. The county counted 454,740 housing units, owner-occupied homes had a median value of $303,500, and the typical renter paid a median gross rent of $1,475 a month (ACS 2024 DP04 for Duval County).

Mayor Donna Deegan heads the consolidated Jacksonville and Duval County government from City Hall at 117 West Duval Street, with a Jacksonville City Council of 19 members passing its laws and budget.

The quickest way into any city or county service is the MyJax line, (904) 630-CITY, which is 630-2489 (City of Jacksonville). City Hall is in downtown Jacksonville; the city's own meeting notices give the address as 117 West Duval Street, with the Don Davis Room and the Naomi T. Glover Conference Room used for public meetings.

Fourteen Jacksonville City Council members represent single districts drawn to roughly equal population, and five hold at-large seats chosen by voters across Duval County. The council picks its President and Vice President every May, for one-year terms starting July 1 (Jacksonville City Council). The current President is Nick Howland, who holds At-Large Group 3, and the Vice President is Joe Carlucci of District 5. Legislative questions go to a district member or the council office at (904) 255-5200, and the council site offers a Council District Search to find the right member.

Public safety is countywide as well. T.K. Waters, elected in November 2022, is the seventh Sheriff of Duval County since consolidation in 1968 (Jacksonville Sheriff's Office), and the city website lists the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department among its own services (City of Jacksonville).

Duval County property values come from the Property Appraiser at 904-255-5900, tax bills and vehicle services from the Tax Collector on Forsyth Street, and voter services from the Supervisor of Elections on Monroe Street downtown.

The Duval County Tax Collector, Jim Overton, keeps the main office at 231 E. Forsyth Street, Jacksonville, phone (904) 255-5700, open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Duval County Tax Collector). A practical warning for anyone who used the Southside offices: the Kernan and Hogan branches are permanently closed, with Kernan closed July 24, 2026, yet the branch menu on the same page still reads Hogan (closing September 2nd). Neptune Beach, Mandarin and the other branches remain on the list.

The Duval County Property Appraiser, Joyce Morgan, began moving the office website to new content on March 13, 2026, and asks residents to call 904-255-5900 with questions during the change (Duval County Property Appraiser). Those who bought and moved into a new home in Duval County after January 1, 2026 can file for a 2027 homestead exemption now; the deadline to file timely for the 2027 tax roll is March 1, 2027. Paper applications go to the Customer Service and Exemptions Division at 231 E. Forsyth Street, Suite 260.

Elections run through Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland. The main office is at 105 E. Monroe Street, the Elections Center is at 1 Imeson Park Blvd., Building 100, and the phone is 904-255-VOTE, with office hours of 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on weekdays (Duval County Supervisor of Elections). For the November 3, 2026 general election, Duval County early voting is open from Oct. 20 to Nov. 1.

Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the Duval County Supervisor of Elections and City of Jacksonville websites.

Duval County hurricane evacuation zones, lettered A to F, are published by the City of Jacksonville Emergency Preparedness Division on JaxReady, which also runs the AlertJax notification sign-up.

JaxReady offers an address lookup for the evacuation zone, registration for AlertJax notifications, registration for Special Medical Needs assistance and the city's 2026-2027 Preparedness Guide (JaxReady). The division also posts live notices: on October 7, 2026 it said it was closely watching a nor'easter then hitting Duval County and was in regular contact with the National Weather Service, and in August 2026 it kept a cooling contingency plan active during an extreme heat warning.

Jacksonville flood policies carry a community discount. FEMA rates the City of Jacksonville, Duval County (community 120077), a class 6 community in its Community Rating System, so flood policies inside the mapped high-risk zone get 20 percent off and policies elsewhere in Jacksonville get 10 percent (FEMA NFIP community status). The currently effective flood map date for Jacksonville is November 2, 2018.

Digital Towns covers Duval County through its Jacksonville town guide, and each row below pairs a Duval County question with its short answer and the Jacksonville section to read next.

Beyond those, the Jacksonville guide covers schools, utilities, the economy and industries, the military, healthcare, landmarks, places, events, sports, the environment and wildlife, each written for Duval County readers. Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Jacksonville Beach and Baldwin do not yet have their own Digital Towns guides.