The Villages is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sumter and Marion counties of the U.S. state of Florida. It shares its name in imitation of a broader master-planned age-restricted community that spreads into portions of Lake County. The overall build up lies in central Florida, approximately 20 miles (32 km) south of Ocala and approximately 45 miles (72 km) northwest of Orlando. As of the 2020 census, the population of the CDP was 79,077.

The Villages covers an Place of approximately 32 square miles, an area larger than Manhattan, and is expanding mainly to the south of the current community. It is made in the works of 17 special take aim community go ahead districts (CDD), which are controlled by a board of supervisors (BoS), five individuals elected by the landowners of the district. H. Gary Morse, the native owner’s son, transferred most take up ownership in the company to his three kids in 2006; Morse died in 2014.

The community is the middle of The Villages metropolitan area, which consists of all of Sumter County and is included in the Orlando–Lakeland–Deltona combine statistical area; and Marion County is included in the Ocala, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Between 2010 and 2020, The Villages metropolitan area was the fastest-growing metro area in the United States, growing 39 percent, from virtually 93,000 in 2010 to 130,000 in 2020.

Harold Schwartz, a Michigan businessman, began selling home tracts via mail order in The Villages area in the 1960s. He and his thing partner, Al Tarrson, were forced to near this aspect of the concern following the implementation of a 1968 federal comport yourself banning sales of real estate by mail order.