Florida

Capital: Tallahassee · South · Sunshine State

State Statistics

About Florida

Florida is the third most populous state in the nation and the fastest-growing large state, adding more residents than any other state in the 2020s as Americans flee high-tax, high-cost states for its warm climate and zero personal income tax. Defined by extraordinary geographic contrasts — the dense subtropical wilderness of the Everglades, the glittering high-rises of Miami's Brickell financial district, the space-age infrastructure of Cape Canaveral, and the world's most visited tourist destination in Orlando — Florida contains multitudes. Miami's Cuban exile community has shaped the city into a bilingual, bicultural gateway between the United States and Latin America, while the I-4 corridor from Tampa to Daytona has become one of the great political swing corridors in American democracy, though the state has trended decisively Republican since 2018 under Governor Ron DeSantis, whose national profile has made Florida a proving ground for conservative governance. Hurricane season from June through November is the defining environmental reality of Florida life, periodically reminding its 22 million residents that they inhabit a narrow peninsula poised between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

Major Cities

Key Industries

Notable Universities