Two of the Top 10 metros for growth right here
Florida had some of the top 10 fastest growing metropolitan areas in the U.S. last year according to new Census data. Some of those areas grew more from people migrating from offshore than from other states. Only Texas grew by more people than last year. Florida remains the third most populous state with 21.3 million residents.
By pure numbers, the Orlando metro area had the fifth largest increase for metropolitan areas in the U.S. from 2017 to 2018. It grew by about 60,000 people. Only Dallas, Phoenix, Houston, and Atlanta saw larger numbers. The Tampa Bay metro area (Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater) had the ninth largest increase in the U.S., growing by a bit more than 51,000 people last year.
About two-thirds of Tampa Bay’s new arrivals came from other U.S. states. In Orlando metro it’s switched: two-thirds of new arrivals came from outside the 50 U.S. states. We know tens of thousands arrived from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria struck in 2017 and from Central and Latin American countries.
Florida also took honors with some of the fastest growing metropolitan areas by percentage increase (rather than pure numbers). These tend to be small metro areas in the U.S. The Lakeland-Winter Haven area, between Orlando and Tampa, came in fourth with a growth rate of 3.2%. It gained about 22,000 residents last year for a population now of 708,000. The Villages, a retirement mecca about an hour north, came in sixth, with a growth rate of 3.1%. Its population is now just under 129,000 residents.
These new numbers from the U.S. Census’s Top 10 Metropolitan Areas in Numeric Growth: 2017 to 2018 show Florida overall now has more new residents from Puerto Rico and from foreign countries than it does from the other 49 states combined. Meanwhile, domestic growth has slowed: Tampa’s deaths outnumbered births by almost 900 people. Even in the Orlando metro, new births accounted for only 16% of the growth.
New Yorkers continue to flee their state for sunny Florida, especially to South Florida. But it’s not just because of lower taxes, as we often hear. A new survey by the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research shows reasons such as family, great weather, and a job transfer all ranked ahead of our lower cost of living.
Florida’s growth creates opportunities as well as challenges for the future. This article is an interesting read on the real estate, affordable housing, infrastructure and environmental impacts and the growing proof that everything from Orlando to Tampa is growing together into one large mega area.
LMA Newsletter of 4-29-19
