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North Central Florida is a region of the U.S. state of Florida. It comprises the north-central part of the state and encompasses Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Columbia, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison, Marion, Putnam, Suwannee and Union counties. The region's principal cities include Gainesville, Ocala, Lake City, Live Oak, and Palatka. The City of Gainesville is the largest city in the region. It serves as the cultural, educational and commercial center for the North Central Florida Region. It is also the home of the University of Florida, the fourth-largest university in the United States. Like the Florida Panhandle, this region is culturally closer to the Deep South than the rest of the state.

The landscape and climate of North Central Florida does not portray the sub-tropical environment most associate with Florida. The landscape of North Central Florida has gently rolling hills dominated by magnolia trees and large Southern live oak hammocks draped with Spanish moss.

The region also has large expanses of pine tree forests. The climate is quite mild throughout the year but has very distinct winters with temperatures dropping below freezing quite often.

North Central Florida is, as the name suggests, in the northcentral part of the state. Its northernmost county, Columbia County, borders southern Georgia. North Central Florida's southernmost county, Marion County, borders far northern Central Florida and some regions of the Nature Coast area. Many other counties in the region border the Nature Coast area, Alachua, Gilchrist and Hamilton included. North Central Florida is not affected by hurricanes as much as its neighboring counties to the east and west, but tornadoes are a severe threat to some areas of the region.

Unlike Central Florida and the Suncoast area, North Central Florida does not have many amusement parks or large theme parks like Disney, Universal, Sea World, Busch Gardens and Cypress Gardens. Instead, it features many parks with nature as their theme. North Central Florida also has many small turn of the century towns that represent the culture of the Deep South.

	State of Florida Tallahassee (capital)
Topics	Government | History | Floridians | Transportation | State Parks
Regions	Big Bend | Central Florida | Emerald Coast | First Coast | Florida Keys | Florida Panhandle | Gold Coast | Nature Coast | North Central Florida | South Florida | Southwest Florida | Space Coast | Sun Coast | Tampa Bay Area | Treasure Coast
Largest cities	Boca Raton | Boynton Beach | Bradenton | Brandon | Cape Coral | Clearwater | Coral Springs | Davie | Daytona Beach | Deerfield Beach | Delray Beach | Deltona | Fort Lauderdale | Fort Myers | Fountainbleau | Gainesville | Hialeah | Hollywood | Jacksonville | Kendale Lakes | Kendall | Kissimmee | Lakeland | Largo | Lauderhill | Margate | Melbourne | Miami | Miami Beach | Miami Gardens | Miramar | North Miami | Orlando | Palm Bay | Palm Coast | Palm Harbor | Pembroke Pines | Pensacola | Plantation | Pompano Beach | Port Orange | Port St. Lucie | St. Petersburg | Sarasota | Spring Hill | Sunrise | Tallahassee | Tamarac | Tamiami | Tampa | Town 'n' Country | Wellington | Weston | West Palm Beach
Counties	Alachua | Baker | Bay | Bradford | Brevard | Broward | Calhoun | Charlotte | Citrus | Clay | Collier | Columbia | DeSoto | Dixie | Duval | Escambia | Flagler | Franklin | Gadsden | Gilchrist | Glades | Gulf | Hamilton | Hardee | Hendry | Hernando | Highlands | Hillsborough | Holmes | Indian River | Jackson | Jefferson | Lafayette | Lake | Lee | Leon | Levy | Liberty | Madison | Manatee | Marion | Martin | Miami‑Dade | Monroe | Nassau | Okaloosa | Okeechobee | Orange | Osceola | Palm Beach | Pasco | Pinellas | Polk | Putnam | Santa Rosa | Sarasota | Seminole | St. Johns | St. Lucie | Sumter | Suwannee | Taylor | Union | Volusia | Wakulla | Walton | Washington

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