Florida County Populations 1900-1990

[Brickell]

This came out of some research from another thread. Thought everybody might be interested in it. Source is here.

This took way more time than I thought it would. Please add 2000 data, county maps for each decade or any other info you'd like. I'll look for more later if i feel up to it.

* denotes first time on the list post 1900

1900 - 528,542 (total state pop.)

1 39,733 Duval

2 36,013 Hillsborough

3 32,245 Alachua

4 28,313 Escambia

5 24,403 Marion

6 23,377 Jackson

7 19,887 Leon

8 18,006 Monroe

9 17,094 Columbia

10 16,195 Jefferson

1910 - 752,619

1 78,374 Hillsborough

2 75,163 Duval

3 38,029 Escambia

4 34,305 Alachua

5 29,821 Jackson

6 26,941 Marion

7 24,148 Polk *

8 22,198 Gadsden *

9 21,563 Monroe

10 19,427 Leon

1920 - 968,470

1 113,540 Duval

2 88,257 Hillsborough

3 49,386 Escambia

4 42,753 Dade *

5 38,661 Polk

6 31,689 Alachua

7 31,224 Jackson

8 28,265 Pinellas *

9 25,434 DeSoto *

10 23,968 Marion

1930 - 1,468,211

1 155,503 Duval

2 153,519 Hillsborough

3 142,955 Dade

4 72,291 Polk

5 62,149 Pinellas

6 53,594 Escambia

7 51,781 Palm Beach *

8 49,737 Orange *

9 42,757 Volusia *

10 34,365 Alachua

1940 - 1,897,414

1 267,739 Dade

2 210,143 Duval

3 180,148 Hillsborough

4 91,852 Pinellas

5 86,665 Polk

6 79,989 Palm Beach

7 74,667 Escambia

8 70,074 Orange

9 53,710 Volusia

10 39,794 Broward *

1950 - 2,771,305

1 495,084 Dade

2 304,029 Duval

3 249,894 Hillsborough

4 159,249 Pinellas

5 123,997 Polk

6 114,950 Orange

7 114,688 Palm Beach

8 112,706 Escambia

9 83,933 Broward

10 74,229 Volusia

1960 - 4,951,560

1 935,047 Dade

2 455,411 Duval

3 397,788 Hillsborough

4 374,665 Pinellas

5 333,946 Broward

6 263,540 Orange

7 228,106 Palm Beach

8 195,139 Polk

9 173,829 Escambia

10 125,319 Volusia

1970 - 6,789,443

1 1,267,792 Dade

2 620,100 Broward

3 528,865 Duval

4 522,329 Pinellas

5 490,265 Hillsborough

6 348,753 Palm Beach

7 344,311 Orange

8 230,006 Brevard *

9 227,222 Polk

20 205,334 Escambia

1980 - 9,746,324

1 1,625,781 Dade

2 1,018,200 Broward

3 728,531 Pinellas

4 646,960 Hillsborough

5 576,863 Palm Beach

6 571,003 Duval

7 471,016 Orange

8 321,652 Polk

9 272,959 Brevard

10 258,762 Volusia

1990 - 12,937,926

1 1,937,094 Dade

2 1,255,488 Broward

3 863,518 Palm Beach

4 851,659 Pinellas

5 834,054 Hillsborough

6 677,491 Orange

7 672,971 Duval

8 405,382 Polk

9 398,978 Brevard

10 370,712 Volusia

[Aessotariq]

Florida's top 10 counties as of 2000:

2000 15,982,378

1 2,253,362 Dade

2 1,623,018 Broward

3 1,131,184 Palm Beach

4 998,948 Hillsborough

5 921,482 Pinellas

6 896,344 Orange

7 778,879 Duval

8 483,924 Polk

9 476,320 Brevard

10 443,343 Volusia

The growth rates are staggering. The top 10 remain the same from 1990, with only Hillsborough surpassing Pinellas.

[RiversideGator]

I guess Dade passed Duval back sometime in the 30s. Back then, the licenses plates in the largest county started with the number 1 and I remember reading that Duval plates started with 1 in the 30s. I was surprised to see that Duval was bigger than Hillsborough as late as 1970. My family has been in Duval since 1901, by the way.

[bobliocatt]

What happened to Duval in the 1970's? Its population growth during that era is pretty consistent with that of an old rustbelt city.

[Brickell]

Duval really dominated the state at 1920 but then look at the following decade. Duval keeps growing but Hillsborough almost doubles and Dade gaines 100k people. Amazing.

Here is a link to the county history

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/fl/state/county.html

In 1900 most of Florida's counties were established but these were added since then. The only difference maker in the population stats looks like the formation of Pinellas from Hillsborough.

County - Date - Cut From - County Seat

St Lucie 1905 Brevard Fort Pierce

Palm Beach 1909 Dade West Palm

Pinellas 1912 Hillsborough Clearwater

Bay 1913 Calhoun & Washington Panama City

Seminole 1913 Orange Sanford

Broward 1915 Dade & Palm Beach Fort Lauderdale

Okaloosa 1915 Santa Rosa Crestview

Flagler 1917 St Johns, Volusia Bunnell

Okeechobee 1917 Osceola, Palm Beach & St Lucie Okeechobee

Charlotte 1921 DeSoto Punta Gorda

Dixie 1921 Lafayette Cross City

Glades 1921 DeSoto Moore Haven

Hardee 1921 DeSoto Wauchula

Highlands 1921 DeSoto Sebring

Sarasota 1921 Manatee Sarasota

Union 1921 Bradford Lake Butler

Collier 1923 Lee & Monroe Naples

Hendry 1923 Lee La Belle

Gilchrist 1925 Alachua Trenton

Gulf 1925 Calhoun Port Saint Joe

IndianRiver 1925 St Lucie Vero Beach

Martin 1925 Palm Beach & St Lucie Stuart

[bobliocatt]

Duval really dominated the state at 1920 but then look at the following decade.  Duval keeps growing but Hillsborough almost doubles and Dade gaines 100k people.  Amazing.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Duval and Hillsborough looked to be on each other heels and even traded places a couple of times, from 1900 up to 1970. The extension of the railroad and losing its tourism industry down south to warmer climates was the downfall for Duval not being able to remain the largest.

Its amazing that Dade & Broward's growth have continued to be off charts for nearly 100 years now, despite the destruction from several hurricanes and the Great Depression. Its also strange to see that Escambia County only added 4,000 residents during the booming 1920s. With its history, I've always wondered why Pensacola hasn't grown to be any larger than what it is today. Then look at Alachua. It basically didn't see any growth for the first have of the 20th Century, while at the same time, the top metros doubled and in some cases tripled in population. This is definately and interesting list that makes you want to know a little more about the reasons why certain places grew the way they did.

Something else that would be interesting to see, is what were the population estimates for these places, in the first half of the century.

[miamistreets]

Wow those numbers are impressive.Dade grew by almost 500,000 from 1950 to 1960.Thats really amazing.I hope it keeps growing(thinking of the positive ofcourse).But in the other hand there are bad things for that too.But(eh)what the heck.Let the buildings rise.

[dgreen]

Alacuha went from top 3 to not even listed.

Sad.

[Florida]

Those figures aren't historically measureable prior to 1920's - 30s simply due to the fact that alot of county boundaries were redrawn, and counties were made from other counties. So it could be the case that Alachua was reshaped, or that another county made itself from a more densely populated portion of Alachua, resulting in a split in numbers causing that figure to drop from 3rd place.

[Viper]

That was what post number 5 fully illustrated.

[Florida]

I now see that! Thanks for pointing it out Viper! I'd only read the post prior to my own.... seems our friend was concerned and needed some comfort.

[neoanderz]

Here are the 2004 numbers from www.census.gov:

2004 17,397,161

1 2,363,600 Miami-Dade County

2 1,754,893 Broward County

3 1,243,230 Palm Beach County

4 1,101,261 Hillsborough County

5 989,926 Orange County

6 928,537 Pinellas County

7 821,338 Duval County

8 524,389 Polk County

9 519,387 Brevard County

10 514,295 Lee County

Changes from 2000:

- Hillsborough breaks 1,000,000

- Orange surpasses Pinellas

- Lee knocks out Volusia

- All top 10 counties have broken half a million

[Florida]

Those figures are awesome!

[Viper]

By the next census, Orange and Pinellas will also have passed 1,000,000 with Duval passing it around 2012-2013.

[depechecureguyorl]

If I'm not mistaken, Orange has already passed the 1 Million mark. I don't have any sources to back up that claim, other than what I've read in the "Slantinel".

[Viper]

Given that these were 2004 figures, I'm quite certain it has as well.

[neoanderz]

I just found these latest figures so I'll update this old thread.

2006 18,089,888

1. 2,402,208 Miami-Dade County

2. 1,787,636 Broward County

3. 1,274,013 Palm Beach County

4. 1,157,738 Hillsborough County

5. 1,043,500 Orange County

6. 924,413 Pinellas County

7. 837,964 Duval County

8. 571,344 Lee County

9. 561,606 Polk County

10. 534,359 Brevard County

I thought I had 2005 figures up here, but I guess not.

Changes from 2004

- Orange passes 1 million

- Lee passes Polk and Brevard

Also here are the same counties by percentage growth since 2000:

Florida 13.18%

Miami-Dade County 6.59%

Broward County 10.14%

Palm Beach County 12.63%

Hillsborough County 15.90%

Orange County 16.42%

Pinellas County 0.32%

Duval County 7.59%

Lee County 29.59%

olk County 16.05%

Brevard County 12.21%

A few others...

11. 496,575 Volusia County 12.01%

12. 450,171 Pasco County 30.57%

13. 406,875 Seminole County 11.41%

19. 290,435 Lake County 37.96%

20. 252,724 St. Lucie County 31.15%

21. 245,625 Leon County 2.58%

22. 244,045 Osceola County 41.5%

23. 227,120 Alachua County 4.20%

35. 83,084 Flagler County 66.72%

Source: http://www.census.gov/popest/counties/tabl...T2006-01-12.xls

[bobdreamz]

2000 15,982,378 Census :

1 2,253,362 Dade

2 1,623,018 Broward

3 1,131,184 Palm Beach

4 998,948 Hillsborough

5 921,482 Pinellas

6 896,344 Orange

7 778,879 Duval

8 483,924 Polk

9 476,320 Brevard

10 443,343 Volusia

2006 18,089,888 Estimates :

1. 2,402,208 Miami-Dade County

2. 1,787,636 Broward County

3. 1,274,013 Palm Beach County

4. 1,157,738 Hillsborough County

5. 1,043,500 Orange County

6. 924,413 Pinellas County

7. 837,964 Duval County

8. 571,344 Lee County

9. 561,606 Polk County

10. 534,359 Brevard County

so Pinellas barely grew since 2000 but Hillsborough & Orange both crossed the 1 million mark giving Florida 5 counties with 1 million + populations. The state as a whole gained another 2,107,510 people since 2000 which is incredible. At this rate we can expect another million plus by the 2010 Census.

[BHCav]

St. John's County gained nearly 45,000 in 6 years. Not bad.

[radiostatic102]

St. John's County gained nearly 45,000 in 6 years. Not bad.

[VistaLakes01]

By the next census, Orange and Pinellas will also have passed 1,000,000 with Duval passing it around 2012-2013.

[poonther]

I'm confused: What happen to Miami-Dade and Broward in your rankings?

On edit: Also are those 2006 rankings? If so, the Duval pop. to me looks a little high, I know they are really growing, but by that much? The Census website shows Duval's 7.1.06 pop as 837,964. Just curious as to why the difference.

[JRS1]

I'm confused: What happen to Miami-Dade and Broward in your rankings?

On edit: Also are those 2006 rankings? If so, the Duval pop. to me looks a little high, I know they are really growing, but by that much? The Census website shows Duval's 7.1.06 pop as 837,964. Just curious as to why the difference.

[JRS1]

Then by 2020 census Orlampa will be ready to go as one population center, tentatively named: Tampa-Orlando-St. Petersburg CSA (including Volusia, Flagler,Sumter, and Marion counties.)

[VistaLakes01]

is this a for real? i.e., they are already slating Tamlandoburg for 2020? I thought it just the collective ramblings of a bunch of forumers; didn't realize the census bureau is planning to do this. that's going to be one big extended metro. Well, in that case, when CFRAIL goes out to Poinciana, they might as well plan on extending it into Haines City and farther into Polk...