Florida (Spanish pronunciation: [floˈɾiða]) is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the karst region north of Ciales, south of Barceloneta, east of Arecibo, and west of Manatí.

First, on April 14, 1949, House Representative Francisco Díaz Marchand presented a project to create a legislative commission that would study the economic and social conditions of the barrio, to determine the suitability of it as an independent municipality.

In 1960, Manuel Frías Morales presented a law that would permit the study to establish the municipality but it was also unsuccessful.

Finally, on June 14, 1971, the Senate of Puerto Rico and Governor Don Luis A. Ferré approved the law that officially created the municipality of Florida.

As the only municipality in Puerto Rico that has its urban area within the northern karst region (sometimes referred as the Northern Karst Hills), it is surrounded by low elevation, red clay and limestone haystack hills known in Caribbean Spanish as mogotes.

The southern border of the municipality with Ciales remains one of the least developed areas on the island, due to the ruggedness of the karst.

However, in 1974, Governor Luis A. Ferré and the Puerto Rican Senate officially declared Florida an independent municipality.

The city belongs to the Puerto Rico Senatorial district III, which is represented by two senators.

[32] Field of silver, in an abyss, a gules (red) anchored cross, like the one in the Asturian district of Llanes.

The shield can be surrounded, to its flanks and bottom by two crossed coffee tree branches with fruits.

Another nickname is the Pueblo de la Piña Cayenalisa due to its pineapple crops.

There are several public and private schools, serving students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, distributed throughout the municipality of Florida.

Like most other towns on the Island, it has a public transportation system consisting of small, subsidized private buses and vans called públicos.