Florence is a city in and the county seat of Lauderdale County, Alabama, United States, in the northwestern corner of the state. According to the 2010 census, the city's population was 39,319. Florence is the largest and principal city of the Metropolitan Statistical Area known as The Shoals (which includes Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia metropolitan areas in Colbert and Lauderdale counties). Florence is considered the primary economic hub of northwestern Alabama.