The 1990 population distribution map was based on the population of county subdivisions defined by the Bureau of the Census.  The Census only records subdivisions with populations of 1,000 or more.  On this map each dot represents 1,000 persons.  Many county subdivisions have populations less than 1,000 and are thus not represented on the map.  For this reason, the dots should not be regarded as representing all of the state's inhabitants.  The map does, however, show clearly that vast areas of the state are thinly populated.
    Florida's population has become increasingly concentrated during this century, as the state evolved from more rural than the nation as a whole to more urban.  This process was most rapid after 1940.  The first wave of growth after World War II came from retirees.  Largely bypassing small retirement communities that had developed throughout the state before World War II, particularly in the central part of the peninsula, and the older sizable retirement community of St. Petersburg, retirees began to settle on the GoldÊCoast in the southeastern portion of the state.  Along with retirees came construction workers and service providers.  Today a string of dense settlement extends up almost the entire east coast.  Newer large communities, mainly inhabited by retirees, have developed on the SunÊCoast of southwestern Florida, and today settlement is almost continuous from Tampa-St. Petersburg to Naples.  A population corridor has emerged from the older metropolitan area of Tampa-St. Petersburg through smaller Polk County cities to Greater Orlando, which today is merging with Greater Daytona Beach.  Growth here is based on a number of different activities, including agriculture, mining, manufacturing and tourism.  The population of the northern part of the state continues to grow less than that of the peninsula.
    The intensity of urban settlement within Florida today is so great that the image of the state both in the eyes of most of its residents, as well as people from elsewhere, is an urban landscape.  Nonetheless, much of the state is lightly populated, some places with densities as low as in rural areas of Montana or Wyoming.  Some of this area, such as the Everglades and BigÊCypressÊSwamp, is environmentally unsuitable for dense human occupancy.  In north Florida the marginally colder winters and distance from beaches and urban centers have contributed to low population density.