According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2022 population estimates, which were announced today, Florida is now the nation’s fastest-growing state for the first time since 1957, after decades of significant population growth.
Between 2021 and 2022, Florida’s population increased by 1.9% to 22,244,823, surpassing Idaho, the state with the greatest growth the year before.
Florida has experienced tremendous percentage growth since 1946; its population in 2022 will be a little over 9 times what it was in 1946 (2,440,000).
The fact that the third-most populous state is also the one with the highest growth is noteworthy because it calls for large population increases.
Florida is a Reliable Top Gainer
After 1946, Florida had different, but always positive, annual population growth rates (Figure 1) after World War II.
In the 1950s, Florida’s yearly population growth averaged 6.1% as air conditioning became more common in the country’s warmer regions (Table 1).
In 1956 and 1957, just at the height of the baby boom, it reached 8%, making Florida the fastest-growing state for the last time up until this point.
Florida’s growth during that time period was significantly higher than the national rate, which was between 1.5% and 2% annually. A population growth rate of 8% per year, which means that the population doubles every nine years, is very fast.
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Florida expanded despite a slowdown in U.S. population growth.
As the baby boom, which lasted from 1946 to 1964, came to an end in the 1960s, Florida’s huge growth slowed down.
The term “slowed” is somewhat misleading, though, as Florida’s average annual growth stayed above 3.0% between 1960 and 1989.
In general, population growth in the Sunshine State was around twice as fast as the national average.
During the 2000s, the trend of Florida’s population going down continued. On average, the state grew by 1.7% each year.
This may appear to be a slower rate of growth than Florida experienced in earlier years, but it is still a rapid rate. The national growth rate during the time frame was roughly 1.0% each year.
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Since 2010, that pattern has remained. Florida saw annual growth range from 1.0% to 2.0% between 2010 and 2020, while national growth fell from 0.9% to 0.5% each year.
At 1.9% in 2022, Florida’s growth was still the quickest among the states and was getting close to the high point of the previous decade. Surprisingly, Florida experienced the second-largest numerical growth after Texas.
In the next few months, Vintage 2022 population estimates that are expected for release will provide further information on the regions and racial and ethnic groups that contributed to the state’s growth.
What States Have the Fastest Growth?
Why hasn’t Florida been the state with the fastest growth in the nation since 1957?
Simply put, Nevada.
Florida has experienced tremendous percentage growth since 1946; its population in 2022 will be a little over 9 times what it was in 1946 (2,440,000).
However, the increases in Nevada are significantly higher. At a staggering 22 times its 1946 population of 143,000, it will have a population of 3,177,772 in 2022. Nevada has occupied the top position for 36 of the 76 years since 1946.
Among the other states with the fastest post-war population growth are Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, North Dakota, and Idaho.
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User note: For the years 1970 and 1980, estimates were interpolated using the previous or next year and then changed based on the new estimated value.
These two years are not included in the intercensal estimates datasets that were used.
The 2010–2019 intercensal projections have not yet been made public. We made use of the Vintage 2020 postcensal estimates for this time frame.
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