Around 500 BC, Celts entered the territory of present-day Floridsdorf, losing ground to the Romans as their empire expanded.

The territory became a no-man's-land, or buffer zone, between the Romans and teutonic tribes, during a period when repeated battles were fought between the two peoples.

The Magyars had conquered the Pannonian Basin (present-day Hungary) by the end of the ninth century, and launched a number of plundering raids both westward and southward.

The westward raids were stopped only with the Magyar defeat at the Battle of Lechfeld of 955, which led to a new political order in Western Europe centered on the Holy Roman Empire.

By 1904, Floridsdorf was made up of the localities Jedlesee, Greater Jedlersdorf, Donaufeld, Leopoldau, Kagran, Hirschstetten, Stadlau, and Aspern.

Through the establishment of the new district Donaustadt in 1938, Floridsdorf lost Kagran, Stadlau, Hirschstetten, Aspern and Lobau.

In addition to these full sub-districts, Floridsdorf also contains parts of Kagran and Kaisermühlen, the greater portions of which lie in the district of Donaustadt.

Settlements and parcels of land have given their names to the census districts of Hirschfeld, Nordrandsiedlung, Großfeldsiedlung, Schottenfeld, Siemensstrasse, Jochberg, Donaufelder Gartnergebiet, Mühlschüttel, Bruckhaufen and Industriegelande Bahndreieck.

With the city limits located near Vienna, the population increased rapidly and showed, up to the First World War, very high growth rates.

In terms of population density, Floridsdorf ranks only in the bottom quarter of the 23 Vienna municipalities, with 3,086 inhabitants per km2.

The population of Floridsdorf comprised, as of 2005, significantly more children, but also a slightly higher proportion of adults over 60, than the Vienna average.

The gender distribution as of 2001 was 47.3% men and 52.7% women, the number of married people making up 43.0% compared to 41.2% in Vienna as a whole.

28.9% of the district's population as of 2001 professed no membership of a religious community, this being the highest such value within the Vienna municipality.

Because of these sub-districts' origin as villages, Floridsdorf is characteristically rural, with most Heuriger taverns selling homegrown wine.

The Museum of Harness and Saddlery, Horseshoes and Veterinary Orthopedics, closed in 2014, but pertaining to everything equine, housed a collection of bone specimens, saddles, horse and beef dishes and an exhibit on the development of horseshoeing from the Romans to the present day.

In Jedlesee, at the former estate of Countess Anna Maria Erdődy, a memorial to Ludwig van Beethoven was established.