Living in The Villages & Lake County

The Villages -- one of the largest age-restricted retirement communities in the world, spanning parts of Sumter, Marion, and Lake counties -- dominates this region's identity so completely that it's treated as its own distinct area rather than folded into Central Florida or North Central Florida. The surrounding Lake County towns (Mount Dora's historic downtown and arts-festival tourism, Leesburg's hospital-anchored healthcare hub, Tavares as the county seat and self-declared 'America's Seaplane City') orbit The Villages both economically and demographically, sharing its retirement-heavy, lakes-and-golf character without carrying the same age restrictions.

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Last reviewed: 2026-08-22. Independent research; see individual place pages for metric-level source attribution. This is not financial, tax, or legal advice -- confirm current figures with a local professional before making a decision.