Florida is geographically part of the South, although its population differs radically from that of other southern states. Florida's demographic history, however, did not begin to diverge markedly from that of its regional neighbors until the middle of the twentieth century. Until then it was basically an agricultural state, populated by whites and blacks, most descended from people who had migrated from other southern states since 1821, the year Florida became a territory of the United States.
The character of Florida began to change rapidly after World War II when the relatively modest but steady flow of mainly northerners into state was augmented by a flood of white southerners, whose numbers have mounted into the millions over the last forty years. Many of those northerners have been retirees. A little more than a decade after the migration of northerners began, a movement of people from Caribbean nations commenced. At first they were primarily politicalÊrefugees from Castro's successful revolution in Cuba, but later economicÊrefugees from many other Caribbean nations settled in Florida. Over the past thirty years approximately three-quarters of a million people from the Caribbean have come to live in the state. Migration to Florida during the last fifty years has made its social geography far more complex today than the past. The maps in the section that follows portray the social geographical heterogeneity of this state, while the narrative attempts to explain it.
POPULATION GROWTH
Since Florida became a territory its rate of population growth has always been high. In most decades since 1830, the year of the first census, the ten-year growth rate has between 40 and 60 percent. In all census periods the rates of population growth in Florida have been higher than those of the United States as a whole. The nation's population growth rate was higher during the decades of the nineteenth century. In Florida growth rates have been at least triple those of the nation since the 1920s.
In 1830, 34,730 people were enumerated in Florida. Most lived in the north, near the Georgia border. When Florida became a United States territory in 1821, the Midwest and the lower Mississippi valley were being populated by people from the settled portion of the nation or from Europe. In 1817 AndrewÊJackson had moved many of the Indians from north Florida in what later became known as the First Seminole War. Florida was now considered a frontier, ready for occupation. Typically the pattern of population growth in frontier America began with a rapid influx of people that lasted several decades, followed by a steep decline in the flow once the land had been occupied. Florida's growth rates were high during the first few decades, but were not as high as in territories in the Midwest or the lower Mississippi valley. In fact, most who came to Florida settled in the north, and few moved onto the peninsula, where the true frontier began, and where a second war to remove the Indians was fought from 1835-42. Migration would have increased if it were not for the formidable environmental obstacles that had to be overcome to live and work in subtropical Florida. Elsewhere in the nation were far more attractive frontiers. People did, however, continue to come in relatively large numbers during the nineteenth century. Florida's population during the 1850s reached 100,000, by the 1870s it had risen to 250,000, and by the late 1890s it surpassed 500,000.
It was during the twentieth century that people began to flow into the state in large numbers. By 1923 its population had reached 1 million, double the 1898 figure. The 2 million mark was reached in about 17 more years (1940), 3 million in eleven more years (1951), 4 million in approximately 1955, 5 and 6 million during the 1960s, 7, 8, and 9 million in the 1970s, and 10, 11, and 12 million during the 1980s. In 1990 the state's population approached 13 million. Florida's population overtook that of both Pennsylvania and Ohio in the 1980s, and in 1990 it had the fourth largest population in the nation, behind California, New York, and Texas. The rates of growth of Alaska, Arizona, and Nevada were higher than Florida's during the 1980s, but only California exceeded Florida in absoluteÊgrowth. Florida's delegation to the US Congress grew from 6 in 1950 to 23 in 1992.
National prosperity following World War II explains the huge growth in population of Florida during the past four decades. Soon after the war most families were able to purchase automobiles, and many had the time and money to travel. Many chose Florida for their vacations. SocialÊSecurity and other retirement benefits available after the war to millions of workers made it possible for many to move to Florida. Employment opportunities mushroomed with the growing numbers of tourists and retirees. The construction industry boomed, as homes, schools, hotels, stores, and offices as well as roads had to be built to meet the needs of new residents and tourists. Visitors and new residents also required a myriad of services, further increasing employment opportunities. Those who came to work and their families created more demand and more jobs. In short, jobs in Florida have been fueled by migration.
SETTLEMENT OF THE STATE
At the time Florida became a territory of the United States in 1821 there were just two urban settlements, StÊAugustine and Pensacola, separated by 275 miles. Each held about 2,000 inhabitants. Neither was chosen as the territorial capital. Instead, land was cleared for the capital from the forest halfway between the two older settlements. A small Indian population was in the area at the time, but no Europeans. The town was given the name Tallahassee, a corruption of a Seminole Indian word for the area. Fortuitous for Tallahassee's growth it was located in the best area for cotton cultivation in the territory. For Years it was the market town for a prosperous agricultural region and for a brief time was the territory's largest city. Throughout the nineteenth century three-quarters of the state's inhabitants lived in north Florida. In the early part of the century most of the population was between the Suwannee and Apalachicola rivers, in a region called Middle Florida, which included Tallahassee. Following the Civil War, northeastern Florida, which includes Jacksonville, overtook Middle Florida in population. West Florida, delineated from Middle Florida by the Apalachicola River, barely maintained an 18 percent share of the state's population in the nineteenth century, and most who lived there settled in or around Pensacola. Relatively few people moved down the peninsula during the nineteenth century. In 1860 it contained only 6 percent of the state's population, but by 1900 its share had risen to 28 percent. For decades the most densely populated part of the peninsula was around Orlando where the economy was based on citrus and a handful of other crops that the newly built railroads could ship to the northern United States.
Urban centers in Florida were small throughout the nineteenth century. From 1850 until sometime during the 1890s KeyÊWest was the state's largest town. Its importance rested on its strategic location at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. The federal government located a naval base there, and several stone forts were built, making the town the "Gibraltar of the Gulf of Mexico." Aside from naval personnel, many of its inhabitants were Cubans and Bahamians. Although visited frequently by winter tourists, it actually had little economic connection with the rest of the state. During the 1890s its population was overtaken in size by both Jacksonville and Pensacola. Jacksonville in 1900 had a population of 28,429 and was thriving as the gateway to the peninsula. Pensacola (17,747 inhabitants) was growing rapidly as a lumber port. Key West in 1990 had a population of 17,114, almost 1,000 less than in 1890. Tampa, with a population of 15,839, was the only other city in the state with population greater than 5,000.
