Tampa

"Tampa" redirects here. For other uses, see Tampa (disambiguation).

Tampa, Florida
City
City of Tampa
Images from top, left to right: Skyline of Downtown Tampa, Amalie Arena, Ybor City, Henry B. Plant Museum, Raymond James Stadium, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Flag Seal
Nickname(s): Cigar City,[1] The Big Guava[2]
Location in Hillsborough County and the state of Florida
Tampa Location in the United States
Coordinates: 27°58′05″N 82°28′35″WCoordinates: 27°58′05″N 82°28′35″W
Country	United States
State	Florida
County	Hillsborough
Settled	1823
Incorporated (Village)	January 18, 1849
Incorporated (Town)	September 10, 1853 and August 11, 1873
Incorporated (City)	December 15, 1855 * and July 15, 1887
Government
• Type	Mayor-council
• Mayor	Bob Buckhorn (D)
• Legislative	Tampa City Council
Area
• City	170.6 sq mi (441.9 km2)
• Land	112.1 sq mi (290.3 km2)
• Water	58.5 sq mi (151.6 km2)  34.3%
• Urban	802.3 sq mi (2,078 km2)
• Metro	2,554 sq mi (6,610 km2)
Elevation	48 ft (14.6 m)
Population (2013)[4]
• City	369,075
• Rank	53rd in the US
• Density	2,969.6/sq mi (1,146.7/km2)
• Urban	2.4 million (17th)
• Metro	2,824,724[3]
Demonym(s)	Tampan, Tampanian[5]
Time zone	EST (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP codes	33601–33626, 33629–33631, 33633–33635, 33637, 33647, 33650–33651, 33655, 33660–33664, 33672–33675, 33677, 33679–33682, 33684–33690, 33694, 33697[6]
Area code(s)	813
FIPS code	12-71000[7]
GNIS feature ID	0292005[8]
Website	www.tampagov.net
* Original city charter revoked by Florida Legislature on October 4, 1869[9]

Tampa (/ˈtæmpə/)^[10] is a major city in, and the county seat of, Hillsborough County, Florida.^[11] It is located on the west coast of Florida on Tampa Bay, near the Gulf of Mexico, and is part of the Tampa Bay Metropolitan Area. The city had a population of 346,037 in 2011.^[12][13]
The current location of Tampa was once inhabited by indigenous peoples of the Safety Harbor culture (most notably the Tocobaga and the Pohoy, who lived along the shores of Tampa Bay). The area was explored by Spanish explorers in the 16th century, resulting in violent conflicts and the introduction of European diseases, which wiped out the original native cultures. Although Spain claimed Florida as part of New Spain, it did not found a colony in the Tampa area, and there were no permanent American or European settlements within today's city limits until after the United States acquired Florida from Spain in 1819.
In 1824, the United States Army established a frontier outpost called Fort Brooke at the mouth of the Hillsborough River, near the site of today's Tampa Convention Center. The first civilian residents were pioneers who settled near the fort for protection from the nearby Seminole population, and the small village was first incorporated as "Tampa" in 1849. The town grew slowly until the 1880s, when railroad links, the discovery of phosphate, and the arrival of the cigar industry jump-started its development, helping it to grow from a quiet village of less than 800 residents in 1880 to a bustling city of over 30,000 by the early 1900s.
Today, Tampa is part of the metropolitan area most commonly referred to as the "Tampa Bay Area". For U.S. Census purposes, Tampa is part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The four-county area is composed of roughly 2.9 million residents, making it the second largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the state, and the fourth largest in the Southeastern United States, behind Miami, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta.^[14] The Greater Tampa Bay area has over 4 million residents and generally includes the Tampa and Sarasota metro areas. The Tampa Bay Partnership and U.S. Census data showed an average annual growth of 2.47 percent, or a gain of approximately 97,000 residents per year. Between 2000 and 2006, the Greater Tampa Bay Market experienced a combined growth rate of 14.8 percent, growing from 3.4 million to 3.9 million and hitting the 4 million population mark on April 1, 2007.^[15] A 2012 estimate shows the Tampa Bay area population to have 4,310,524 people and a 2017 projection of 4,536,854 people.^[16]
Tampa was ranked as the 5th best outdoor city by Forbes in 2008.^[17] Tampa also ranks as the fifth most popular American city, based on where people want to live, according to a 2009 Pew Research Center study.^[18] A 2004 survey by the NYU newspaper Washington Square News ranked Tampa as a top city for "twenty-somethings."^[19] Tampa is ranked as a "Gamma+" world city by Loughborough University, ranked alongside other world cities such as Phoenix, Charlotte, Rotterdam, and Santo Domingo.^[20]