Florida trailed only Texas among the 50 states in attracting newcomers over the last year, as the Sunshine State placed fourth in the nation in its percentage growth rate, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday.
Florida had an estimated 20.6 million residents as of July 1, compared to California’s 39.3 million people and Texas’ population of 27.9 million. Florida’s gain of 367,525 new residents topped California’s growth of 256,077 new residents; Texas led the nation with a gain of 432,957 people. Meanwhile, Florida led the 10 largest states with a 1.82 percent annual growth rate, and ranked behind Utah (2.03 percent), Nevada (1.95 percent) and Idaho (1.83 percent) among all states.
Nationally, the population growth rate was 0.7 percent. Regionally, the West had the fastest annual growth rate at 1.08 percent, followed by the South at 1.06 percent. Midwestern states had a 0.15 percent growth rate, while the Northeast had only a 0.04 percent increase. Florida remained the nation’s third-largest state and increased its population edge over fourth-ranked New York, with a margin of 867,150 residents in 2016 compared to 497,731 a year earlier.–News Service of Florida
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