Sarasota County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. Its county seat is Sarasota. This County was created in 1921 and named for a word in the indigenous Calusa language, whose meaning may mean point of rocks. Sarasota County is part of the Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice Metropolitan Statistical Area. Sarasota County has a total area of approximately 725 square miles of which 79% is land and 21% water. As of the 2000 census, there were 325,957 people, 149,937 households, and 94,460 families residing in Sarasota County, FL.