Bowling Green is a city in Hardee County, Florida, United States. The population was 2,405 at the 2020 census. One of the first settlers of the vicinity, A.M. Chester of Bowling Green, Kentucky, established a homestead in 1883. In 1886, he gave 40 acres to the Florida Southern Railway, a service that continues to operate in the area. As the town began to develop, the industries of Citrus Farming and Phosphate Mining took hold with in the town.