DoverFL
A town of 3,009, settled in 1890.
Is Dover a good place to live?
Dover gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $424K, 5.7 years of the Tampa metro’s $74K median household income. It grades C overall, 336th among Florida's 634 graded towns. The low prices come with trade-offs. CDC estimates put its residents' health behind 84% of the country, and FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 72% of U.S. communities, with hurricanes at the top. On the plus side, it is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 76% of U.S. towns. 24% of residents live below the poverty line in Dover, above both the Florida town median (11%) and the median of U.S. towns (9.6%). The biggest park or preserve is Dover Park, at 57 acres.
What makes Dover stand out
Where Dover beats most towns.
Dover has shrunk 12% from 2010 to 2020
3,702 counted in 2010 and 3,266 in 2020.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts
How Dover grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Florida), ordered by how far Dover is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Tropicana Field and 57 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Dover. Close and well known come first.
Big draw30 mi Stadium & arenaTropicana Field
Big draw17 mi Stadium & arenaRaymond James Stadium
14 mi Stadium & arenaBenchmark International Arena
12 mi Theme parkBusch Gardens Tampa4.0M visitors a year
12 mi Stadium & arenaYuengling Center
29 mi MuseumSalvador Dalí MuseumPhoto credits
Tropicana Field: EaglesFanInTampa, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Raymond James Stadium: NASA, Public domain · Benchmark International Arena: Miosotis Jade, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Busch Gardens Tampa: Wolle8ball, CC BY 3.0 · Yuengling Center: User:TheCustomOfLife, Public domain · Salvador Dalí Museum: Taty2007, CC BY 3.0
.JPG){kind=link}
Moving to Dover: who provides what
Dover is unincorporated, so Hillsborough County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 17, 2025.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Dover.
Dover is healthier than towns with similar incomes and has milder winter nights than nearly all U.S. towns, but it has poverty well above the Florida rate.
Compared with most of Florida and the rest of the country, more of Dover’s adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance
Against the 5,685 U.S. towns with household incomes like Dover’s, it is less healthy than 59%, so its C− isn’t only a matter of income.
For adults in Dover, the share who have high blood pressure is 34%. CDC measures, 31 in all: Dover beats Florida on 2 and trails on 16. Among adults locally, 26% worry about having enough food and 34% get no exercise outside work.
| Dover | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 14% | 8.1% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 20% | 19% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 26% | 15% | 14% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 34% | 25% | 25% |
| What stands out | Dover | FL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 5.6% | 9.1% |
| Fewer adults with arthritis | 21% | 26.6% |
| More uninsured adults | 33% | 15.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
On state tests, Dover’s schools trail 57% of Florida districts
Public schools: the Hillsborough school district. Its two schools are below. 2 public schools serve Dover, with 591 students in all.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dover ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 530 | C+ |
| Willis Peters Exceptional CenterLargest public high schoolGrades PK–12 | Grades PK–12 | 61 | D− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within FL on state tests and graduation
Protected land: 3.4% of Dover
Count the trails in 1 park or preserve and they come to 1.5 miles. Dover’s density of trails stands at 0.6 miles per square mile.
| Dover | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.6 miles per square mile | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 3.4% | 3% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Dover Park | — | 57 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Dover has 0.3 jobs per working resident, so most workers leave town for work
Jobs based here fell from 553 in 2013 to 413.
Just 2% of Dover’s working residents have a job in town. In Dover, the mean commuting time is 35 minutes. Employers in Dover shed 140 jobs between 2013 and 2023, to 413. For half of commuters, work is under 15 miles away.
| Dover | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 35 minutes | 27 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $50,000 | $73,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 1.5% | 5% | 8% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The biggest natural risk in Dover is hurricanes, at a high overall level
Expected losses in Dover break down as 41% from hurricanes and 19% from inland flooding. Federal aid has come to Dover households in 10 declared disasters; the latest was in 2024.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The climate in Dover brings mild winters and hot summers
January nights average 49.7°, milder than in 98% of U.S. towns; July afternoons average 91.1°.
Dover’s midsummer high comes in at 91°F. Snow is a rarity.
| Dover | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January low | 50°F | 51°F | 22°F |
| July high | 91°F | 91°F | 85°F |
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The median rent in Dover is lower than in the typical Florida or U.S. town
55% of Dover households live in a home they own. Homes here are typically worth about $425,000, about the same as a year ago, 13% above the Florida typical home.
| Dover | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 55% | 72% | 73% |
| Median rent | $862 a month | $1,647 a month | $1,185 a month |
Typical home value
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Everything we know about Dover
Colleges nearby
7 within 15 miles of the center of Dover
About 3 of every 100 Dover residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Florida.
98% of working residents leave Dover for work
Where Dover’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Questions about Dover
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Dover, FL a good place to live?
Dover grades C overall, better than 32% of U.S. towns and #336 of 634 in Florida. It grades C− for health and C+ for schools. Health is its weak spot, with a C−.
Is Dover, FL expensive?
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B.