Captiva is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Lee County, Florida, United States. It is located on Captiva Island. As of the 2020 census the population was 318, down from 583 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located just offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, the island is just north of Sanibel Island. Captiva is accessed by a small bridge that crosses Blind Pass from Sanibel Island. There is a toll to use the causeway that goes from the mainland to Sanibel Island. Many of Captiva's homes, condominiums, and businesses were destroyed during Hurricane Charley in 2004, but the island recovered shortly thereafter. In September 2022, Hurricane Ian caused significant damage to the causeway and to the infrastructure of the island. Geography Captiva is located in western Lee County at (26.518028, -82.191057). The CDP comprises the entire island, bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico and to the east by Pine Island Sound. Captiva Drive is the main road on the island, running from the town center south to the Blind Pass bridge to Sanibel. It is a drive from Captiva to the Sanibel Causeway and a total of by road from Captiva to the center of Fort Myers. According to the United States Census Bureau, the Captiva CDP has a total area of , of which are land and , or 28.15%, are water. Originally part of neighboring Sanibel Island to the southeast, it was severed in 1926 when a hurricane's storm surge created a new channel, Blind Pass. The channel filled in over subsequent years, but was reopened by dredging in the summer of 2009. Like Sanibel, Captiva is a barrier island to Pine Island (to the east of Captiva and north of Sanibel), however it is much narrower. The only automobile access to Captiva is via the Sanibel Causeway and Sanibel-Captiva Road, which ends in the CDP of Captiva, the island's only CDP. Captiva was homesteaded in 1888 and a tiny cemetery next to The Chapel by the Sea has the grave of the original resident, William Herbert Binder (1850–1932), an Austrian. Half the island is in private ownership, with "Millionaire's Row", luxury homes on the gulf and bay sides of Captiva Drive. The South Seas Island Resort entry gate is at the end of this road. Roosevelt Channel on the east side