Explainer · October 25, 2026

South Florida's Three Counties, Explained: Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach

By the SFL Today team · Published October 25, 2026 · Miami, FL

Miami skyline over Biscayne Bay at sunset — Miami is the county seat of Miami-Dade, the southern anchor of South Florida's three counties.

Miami over Biscayne Bay at sunset. The metro that locals call South Florida runs from this bayfront more than 100 miles of coastline north. Photo: Muzammil Soorma via Unsplash.

Ask ten people where South Florida starts and you will get ten answers. But the region SFL Today covers — and the one most locals mean — is the continuous coastal metro of three counties: Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach. Together they hold roughly six million people, three county governments, dozens of cities, and one shared daily reality of traffic, weather, water, and growth. This is the map behind every page on this site.

Miami-Dade County — the anchor

Miami-Dade is Florida's most populous county, with roughly 2.7 million residents across more than 30 municipalities — Miami (the county seat), Miami Beach, Hialeah, Coral Gables, Doral, Aventura, Kendall, Homestead, and Miami Gardens among them. It is the region's economic engine: the port and airport, the Brickell financial district, the health district, and a cultural life that runs in English, Spanish, and Creole, often in the same sentence. Miami-Dade news tends to set the region's agenda — county hall decisions here ripple into everything from transit to the price of a cafecito. Follow it on our Miami page.

Broward County — the middle that grew up

Broward, with roughly 1.9 million residents and Fort Lauderdale as its county seat, was once treated as the suburbs between Miami and Palm Beach. That era is over. Fort Lauderdale's downtown and Las Olas corridor, a major seaport and airport, the boating capital identity, and fast-growing western cities like Plantation, Davie, Coral Springs, and Weston make Broward its own center of gravity — and, as our deep dive on the sheriff's budget fight shows, its county politics are as consequential as anyone's. Follow it on our Fort Lauderdale page.

Palm Beach County — the big county up north

Palm Beach County is Florida's largest county by land area — bigger than some states' reputations, stretching from the Atlantic through West Palm Beach (the county seat), Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Jupiter, and Wellington, all the way west to Lake Okeechobee and the agricultural Glades communities. Roughly 1.5 million people live here, and the county's split personality is real: equestrian estates and spring training in the north and west, historic resort wealth on the island of Palm Beach, and fast-growing family suburbs in between. Follow it on our Palm Beach page.

One region, three governments

What makes the three counties one region is everything that ignores the county lines: the I-95 and Turnpike commute, Tri-Rail and Brightline, the shared coastline and the same hurricane forecasts, the same king tides (explained in our king tide explainer), and sports and media markets that treat the tri-county area as a single audience. What keeps them distinct is government: three sheriffs, three school districts, three transit systems, and three very different property-tax and insurance pictures. Understanding South Florida means holding both truths at once — which is exactly how we organize this site: one regional news feed, three county editions, and one directory that searches across all of it.