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La Florida
Hispanic diversity in Florida
Depending on where you live in the state, the largest group of Hispanics may be Mexicans, Puerto Ricans or Cubans.
» Some 22% — 4.22 million — of Florida’s residents are Hispanic, but they are not evenly distributed throughout the state. More than half live in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Orange counties.
» Among Florida’s larger cities, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale most closely resemble the statewide demographic averages of 62% non-Hispanic whites, 22% Hispanic and 16% African-American.
» Among Florida’s larger cities, Jacksonville has the lowest percentage of Hispanics — 8%, while Miami has the highest — 66%.
» The state’s Hispanic population grew by more than 57% between 2000 and 2010.
» Cubans (1.2 million) have been the political and social face of Hispanic Florida since 1960 and are still the largest Hispanic group in Florida.
» Future in-flows and out-flows of Hispanics depend on the interplay of unpredictable factors such as the Florida economy, the economy of Puerto Rico, the birth rate in Mexico, Argentina’s political leadership and Venezuela after Hugo Chavez.
» The population distribution of Hispanic Floridians today has about as much to do with the Spanish colonial era as the population distribution of Floridians in general has to do with life here before air conditioning. The counties most associated with Spanish colonial settlement and missions — St. Johns, Escambia, Leon and Nassau — have some of the lowest Hispanic populations in Florida, 5.2%, 4.7%, 5.6% and 3.2%, respectively.
