St. Petersburg is located within Florida’s Pinellas County with an estimated 2018 population of 265,098 people, making it the fifth-most populous city in the state. Along with Clearwater and Tampa, these cities comprise the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area, the second-largest in Florida with a population of approximately 2.8 million. St. Petersburg is located on the Pinellas peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, and is connected to mainland Florida to the north.