Plant City, being 30-40 minutes by car from Tampa to east and Orlando to the west, is centrally located. Still,
until the late 1990s, the sprawl and growth that affected most other areas in the Tampa Bay region seemed to pass
Plant City by. As a result, the community today still offers a quiet, close-knit, small-town
lifestyle, but with the all modern amenities city dwellers expect.
It occupies 26 square miles, 10 miles west of Lakeland and 24 miles east of Tampa Bay.
With a population of 33,000+ people, and upwards of 87,000 in the surrounding region, Plant City is a vibrant mix
of past and present—of yesterday and today. While the I-4 corridor to the north is home to much new high-tech and
clean industry, agriculture still plays a key role in Plant City’s economy. The land is a patchwork of pasture and
citrus groves, strawberry fields and plant nursery farms, older tree-lined residential areas and broad,
sprawling fairways of the newer and ever-growing segment of planned communities.
Plant City Schools
Children in Plant City attend one of eleven elementary schools, six of which are “A” schools, three middle schools,
two alternative/career schools for grades 6-12, and four high schools, two of which follow a non-traditional high school learning model. In keeping with its roots, Plant City High is included in the National Register of Historic Places.
