Expansive Soil in Florida: County Ratings

None of the 67 rated counties in Florida have a dominant shrink-swell rating of High or Very High. Each rating below is the NRCS shrink-swell class covering the largest share of the county's mapped soil acres, computed from USDA SSURGO data. Open a county for the full class breakdown and what it means for a slab foundation.

County Dominant class High + Very High share Survey coverage
Alachua County Low 4% 91%
Baker County Low 0% 98%
Bay County Low 0% 86%
Bradford County Low 0% 93%
Brevard County Low 8% 78% *
Broward County Low 0% 43% *
Calhoun County Low 5% 99%
Charlotte County Low 0% 84%
Citrus County Low 1% 87%
Clay County Low 2% 90%
Collier County Low 0% 89%
Columbia County Low 0% 99%
DeSoto County Low 0% 99%
Dixie County Low 0% 96%
Duval County Low 8% 84%
Escambia County Low 0% 87%
Flagler County Low 9% 93%
Franklin County Low 4% 94%
Gadsden County Low 1% 95%
Gilchrist County Low 0% 98%
Glades County Low 0% 75% *
Gulf County Low 7% 91%
Hamilton County Low 3% 97%
Hardee County Low 0% 100%
Hendry County Low 0% 94%
Hernando County Low 8% 95%
Highlands County Low 0% 90%
Hillsborough County Low 1% 93%
Holmes County Low 0% 99%
Indian River County Low 2% 81%
Jackson County Low 1% 97%
Jefferson County Low 0% 96%
Lafayette County Low 0% 100%
Lake County Low 6% 79% *
Lee County Low 1% 72% *
Leon County Low 2% 88%
Levy County Low 6% 93%
Liberty County Low 5% 99%
Madison County Low 0% 99%
Manatee County Low 0% 92%
Marion County Low 7% 94%
Martin County Low 0% 79% *
Miami-Dade County Low 0% 51% *
Monroe County Low 0% 53% *
Nassau County Low 16% 87%
Okaloosa County Low 0% 87%
Okeechobee County Low 0% 86%
Orange County Low 1% 87%
Osceola County Low 1% 87%
Palm Beach County Low 0% 33% *
Pasco County Low 1% 95%
Pinellas County Low 0% 69% *
Polk County Low 7% 86%
Putnam County Low 2% 81%
Santa Rosa County Low 1% 88%
Sarasota County Low 0% 86%
Seminole County Low 8% 78% *
St. Johns County Low 6% 88%
St. Lucie County Low 0% 91%
Sumter County Low 11% 93%
Suwannee County Low 0% 99%
Taylor County Low 0% 99%
Union County Low 0% 95%
Volusia County Low 5% 81%
Wakulla County Low 2% 94%
Walton County Low 0% 90%
Washington County Low 0% 97%

* Less than 80% of this county's map acres have completed soil survey data; treat its rating as provisional.

How these ratings are computed

Ratings come from USDA NRCS SSURGO soil survey data: for each soil component we take the maximum linear extensibility percent (lep_r) in the top 100 cm, apply the NRCS Handbook Part 618 class limits (Low under 3 percent, Moderate 3 to 6, High 6 to 9, Very High 9 and above), assign map units by plurality of component percent, and roll acres up to the county. Full details on the methodology section of the lookup page. A county rating is not a parcel-level geotechnical assessment.