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News Release
Florida home to metro areas among top U.S. population gainers
Florida was home to four of the nation’s top five fastest-growing metropolitan statistical areas and three of the top 10 that gained the largest number of people from 2022 to 2023, reflecting continued population growth across the South.
The increases in Florida — the nation’s third most populous state — were fueled by rapid growth in select metro areas in the state during that period (Figure 1).
The population growth in Florida’s metro areas underscores a larger trend of widespread population growth across the South, the nation’s fastest-growing region and site of all of the top 10 fastest-growing U.S. metro areas from 2022 to 2023.
Among them:
- Wildwood-The Villages – known for its large retirement community – whose population rose nearly 5% to 151,565, making it the nation’s fastest-growing metro area.
- Lakeland-Winter Haven, the second fastest-growing metro area, up nearly 4% to 818,330.
- Ocala and Port St. Lucie, the fourth and fifth fastest-growing metro areas, respectively. Their populations increased by more than 3% each to 409,959 and 536,901.
Florida’s more populous metro areas ranked among the nation’s top 10 in numeric population gains.
Three metro areas collectively added nearly 150,000 residents from 2022 to 2023: Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford (54,916); Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater (51,622); and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach (43,387) — the fourth, fifth and 10th largest numeric gaining metro areas nationwide, respectively.
What’s Behind the Growth
U.S. migration patterns played a significant role in the South’s population growth. Many people moved to this region, contributing to its overall positive net domestic migration (more people moving in from the rest of the United States than moving out to other parts of the United States). From 2022 to 2023, 28 of the top 30 metro areas with the highest positive domestic migration were in the South.
The growth of Florida’s metro areas between 2022 and 2023 was also driven by positive net migration—the sum of net domestic and net international migration — which includes movers from within the United States and other countries. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach was the only Florida metro area to experience negative net domestic migration between 2022 and 2023. Some of these Florida metro areas grew despite experiencing natural decrease (when the number of deaths outnumbers births).
» Read the full article at Census.gov
Information on other growing metro areas is available in the population estimates release.
Kristie Wilder is a demographer and Paul Mackun a geographer in the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Branch.
