Florida Population Statistics Show Growth To Blow Past New York State

Florida population statistics are showing growth to the point that the Sunshine state is about to blow past New York state in numbers.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Florida marijuana legalization efforts are trying to get people to sign a petition to put medical marijuana to a ballot vote.

As a native Floridian, one might suspect the reason Florida is growing so rapidly is because seniors from the North are retiring here in droves. While that is still largely the case, seniors are not driving the growth. Instead, James Johnson, a business professor at the University of North Carolina, says Florida population growth is being driven by Hispanics:

“Florida is kind of an icon of the 21st century in terms of the shifting population and the growing role Latin America is playing in transforming the country. I think it’s going to be for the 21st century what California or New York was for the 20th century.”

Around two-fifth of the changes to Florida population demographics are being driven by those under age 25. The vast majority are somewhere between the ages of 25 and 64.

This trend in changes to Florida’s population can’t be missed in some parts of central and south Florida. For example, in sections of Miami and Tampa there are parts of town where advertising billboards and street signs are entirely in Spanish.

The changes in Florida population statistics also point to an economy where service sector jobs are the most commonly available, especially in tourist areas like Orlando. High paying technical and business jobs tend to be limited to counties north of Miami, where some major businesses have their headquarters (did you know Burger King headquarters is down in the south?), or in the space coast near where NASA used to launch the space shuttles. Unfortunately, defense contractors and NASA took a beating in recent years with government cutbacks, although in the case of NASA the overall budget was increased but the money was shifted away from space into global warming research. The economy was also largely driven by the housing boom so many people lost their jobs when everything went bust.

Although Florida’s annual wages averages out to $41,000, which is less than New York’s $53,500, the cost of living is significantly lower and there’s no state income tax. Never mind the weather…

(Oh, and I just had to brag… that’s my wife.)

Politicians are also paying attention to the Florida population statistics. The state has 29 electoral votes in a Presidential election and, once Florida passes the New York population in numbers, only Texas and California will be the next biggest. And it’s not like New York is shrinking in size… it’s just that Florida’s population has been growing three times as fast, although there was a time during the middle of the Great Recession where Florida’s growth actually went down for a short time.

What do you think about the Florida population statistics showing such strong growth… want to move somewhere where the sun shines most days?