Florida’s population has grown faster than any other state since 2020, according to the Vintage 2024 Population Estimates released on Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
According to our partners at WJXT in Jacksonville, from July 1, 2020, to July 1, 2024, Florida’s population increased by 8.24%. Idaho was right behind the Sunshine State with an 8.23% increase, followed by Texas with a 7.02% increase, the new data estimates show.
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From 2023 to 2024, Florida’s estimated population increased by 467,347 people and was second only to Texas, which gained 562,941.
In contrast, the estimated national population increased 2.57%— to 340.11 million — from 2020 to 2024.
As of July 1, 2024, Florida was home to 23,372,215 residents, according to the U.S. Census estimates.
The fastest-growing city in Florida was Westlake, which is in Palm Beach County. The tiny municipality grew from 1,050 people in 2020 to 7,664 in 2024 — an increase of 630%!
The fastest-growing county was St. Johns County.
The 10-county Central Florida area grew by 11% from 2020 to 2024.
The top five fastest-growing counties were Osceola, Sumter, Flagler, Polk and Lake counties.
While Orlando is Central Florida’s largest city, several have grown faster in the last few years.
The top three fastest-growing cities in Central Florida are all in Polk County — Eagle Lake grew almost 83% over four years, followed by Davenport with 72.3% and Haines City at 50.5%.
Leesburg and Minneola in Lake County round out the top five.
Florida’s growth has been attributed to two key issues in the Census Bureau data: international migration and population increases in the South.
A news release accompanying data from 2023 to 2024 said net international migration “was the critical demographic component of change driving growth in the (U.S.) resident population. With a net increase of 2.8 million people, it accounted for 84% of the nation’s 3.3 million increase in population between 2023 and 2024.
But some say President Donald Trump’s and Governor Ron DeSantis’ immigration crackdown may impact future projections.
In February, members of Florida’s Demographic Estimating Conference met to adopt a new population forecast. However, they decided not to make any updates to their model because of “emerging and evolving changes” to federal and state immigration policies.
Conference members said in an executive summary that they expected that both federal and state immigration policies would “exert downward pressure” on the population projections for Florida, the third most populous state in the United States.
While most states experienced growth from 2020 to 2024, seven states had a population decline. These states include California, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York and West Virginia.
However, some of those states, like California and Illinois, regained some of their population and grew from 2023 to 2024.
With so many people moving to Florida, we want to know: What do you think people considering a move to Florida should know? What do you wish you knew before moving here? Be sure to include where you live in the state.
Tell us in the form below. We’ll share the responses on WKMG News 6 and on ClickOrlando.com .