St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2014 census estimate, the population was 253,693, making St. Petersburg the 5th most populous city in the state of Florida and the largest city in Florida that is not a county seat (the city of Clearwater is the county seat). St. Petersburg is the second largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa, composed of roughly 2.8 million residents, making it the second largest Metropolitan Statistical Area in the state. It is also a popular vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. The city is located on a peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico and is connected to mainland Florida to the north.