After the St. Johns County elections, the County Commission has a majority of commissioners who campaigned on a platform of slowing the county’s rapid development growth. Our number this week helps to tell the story of why that was important to the county’s electorate. In the last 35 years, almost 85,000 single-family homes have been built in St. Johns County:

For a county with about 104,000 houses on its tax roll today, that’s a huge addition. Of course, fast growth puts a strain on services like schools and infrastructure like roads and sewers. Permits for new homes hit their peak after the pandemic: The county issued more than 5,153 in 2021 alone. But residential growth has been on a downward slope since then.

Residential development equals population growth. St. Johns County has about 275,000 residents, according to 2020 U.S. Census data — which was a 45% increase over the 10 years prior.

By contrast, Duval, a county with 983,153 residents in 2021, grew more slowly over the same time.