STD Capital of America is rumored to be in the Florida neighborhood

It’s no secret that The Villages has been a hotbed of swingers. Central Florida’s retirement community was the fastest growing metropolitan area in the country just a few years ago.

Residents often feel like they have to justify why they moved to the neighborhood so they won’t be judged. The Tampa Bay Times wrote a survey of the 38,000-member Facebook group and got some interesting feedback. “My doctor in Ohio itself, when asked where we were spending time in Florida, said ‘Oh, The Villages – highest STD rate in the country,'” Jan Schweitzer wrote on the post.

“We are more worried about alligators than crabs here,” typing Sean Donnelly.

So who started the rumor that the love of these retirees kiss? Some say a nurse spread the story, but most people trace it back to a 2006 news story titled “Retired Physician Community Sees Rise in STDs.” However, the story is no longer active online.

The Tampa Bay Times interviewed a village employee. “I actually don’t see a lot of STDs,” said Villa, who has worked at The Villages for nearly two decades.

In fact, the three counties containing The Villages tend to have significantly lower STD rates. Sumter County had one of the lowest rates of sexually transmitted diseases among seniors in 2019, at about one in 10,000 people.

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