March 29, 2024
What Florida Looks Like Today

60th Anniversary

What Florida Looks Like Today

The ZIP codes most/least like Florida overall.

Mike Vogel | 4/27/2018

Florida’s statewide demographics reflect a diverse state.

  • 54.9% — non-Hispanic white
  • 24.9% — Hispanic
  • 16.8% — non-Hispanic black
  • 3.4% — non-Hispanic “other”

That diversity is spread very unevenly throughout the state, however: Few of Florida’s counties or communities resemble those statewide averages. In Pinellas County, only 9% of the population is Hispanic. In Duval County (Jacksonville), nearly a third of the population is black. In Sumter County, 85% of the population is white, non-Hispanic.

FLORIDA TREND asked the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research to find us the local community in Florida that most resembles Florida — the one closest to the state’s averages.

Bureau population program director Stefan Rayer’s analysis of U.S. Census survey data turned up places that come close. Top on the list is ZIP code area 33843 in Frostproof in Polk County on the Lake Wales Ridge.

Frostproof averages just a 0.8% difference from the state in those categories, making it demographically the place in Florida that’s most like Florida.

ESRI, a California analytics firm, drills down into ZIP code data to create portraits of what people in a particular ZIP are like. The highest share — 18% — of Frostproof’s population falls into a demographic category that the ESRI “Tapestry” classifies as Rural Bypass: “We love wild, open spaces and farmland. We live in small towns with back roads and enjoy the open air. Our country lifestyle centers around gardening, hunting and fishing. We’re more likely to own a satellite dish than a home computer. We rarely use the internet and if we still work, it’s in agriculture or manufacturing.”

The next largest share in Frostproof — 15% — is The Elders, the top classification for Florida overall, too.

The ZIP codes that MOST closely resemble the state’s demographics:

  • 33843 — Frostproof, Polk County
  • 33414 — Wellington, Palm Beach County
  • 33510 — Brandon, Hillsborough County

The ZIP codes that LEAST resemble the state’s demographics:

Toss out ZIP code areas with less than 5,000 in population and you get:

  • 32209 — Jacksonville, Duval County
  • 33311 — Fort Lauderdale, Broward County
  • 33056 — Miami Gardens, Miami-Dade County

Each area has a large percentage of non- Hispanic blacks. In none of those areas is the non-Hispanic white population higher than 14%, while the Hispanic population ranges from the single digits to no higher than 17.5%.

Diversity

ESRI also identified the most and least diverse areas in Florida by ZIP code. ESRI’s Diversity Index examines data to see the likelihood that two people, chosen at random, belong to different race or ethnic groups.

The five ZIP codes in Florida with the GREATEST diversity:

33438 — Canal Point, Palm Beach County

Canal Point, which lies amid the agriculture lands on Lake Okeechobee, is majority Hispanic and young. Over a quarter of the population is black.

34142 — Immokalee, Collier County

Another youthful ag community, though this one also includes the new town of Ave Maria. It’s nearly 73% Hispanic and 18% black.

34956 — Indiantown, Martin County

Near Canal Point, Indiantown this year became its own municipality, free of the growth-opposing larger county of Martin, which locals blame for holding back the area’s economy. The majority Hispanic area likewise is young relative to Florida. One-fifth of its population is black.

33440 — Clewiston, Hendry County

Another Lake Okeechobee agriculture area reaching south into farmland and Everglades and west toward Immokalee, the ZIP code is nearly half Hispanic and one-fifth black.

32839 — Orlando, Orange County

The only one of the top-five most-diverse that’s north of Lake Okeechobee, this ZIP starts at the junction of I-4 and Florida’s Turnpike and stretches east, encompassing the Mall at Millenia, Lake Tyler and Lake Jessamine before stopping at South Orange Avenue. It’s over a third Hispanic and 46% black.

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