Here are the fifteen quick notes I put on twitter today about the new census data. More coming on all this soon:
1/2015 census estimates out today. Some really interesting things in Florida. First, population up almost 1.5 million to just over 20.7 m
2/Florida is growing at a slighlty slower rate than 2000-10, but is adding more people. We will push 22 million by 2020.
3/Big Picture, Florida is getting really diverse, really quickly.
4/Tampa and Miami media markets almost exact same population - both roughly 23% of state. Orlando growing faster though, now 20%.
5/Hispanics make up 51.1% of the population growth. Non-Hispanic whites made up 19.4%
6/Another way to look at: in 5 years, FL Hispanic population grew 14.9%. Non-Hispanic Black 8.9%, Non-Hispanic White 2.5%
7/In 5 years, Hispanics have grown from 22.5 to 24.% of population. Non-Hispanic white dropped from 58.0% to 55.3%.
8/At current pace, Hispanics will be close to about over 26% of population at next census, or 5.7m of statewide 21.7m residents. Compare this to 18% in 2000.
9/Miami (which includes Broward) media market is now majority Hispanic. Three biggest markets for Hispanic growth: Miami, Orlando, and Tampa.
10/In fact, there are almost more new Hispanics just in the Orlando market than there are new people of all races across all of I-10.
11/Hispanic growth faster on I-4 than Miami. Hispanic grew 18.6% on I-4, 11.6% in SE Fl.
12/In fact, over 47% of the population growth on I-4 can be attributed to Hispanics.
13/Counties where the Hispanic share of the population growing fastest: Osceola, Broward, Orange, Polk and St. Lucie Counties.
14/This all lines up almost exactly with voter reg change. Since 2008, Hispanics make up 53.% of voter registration growth.
15/All this means one thing: Florida in 2016 will have a more diverse electorate than 2012 -- and more diverse yet in 2020.