The University of Florida (UF) reports that Florida’s population growth slowed considerably last year as the housing boom went bust, but it remained relatively strong and likely will stay that way for the next few years.
Stan Smith, director of the UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research, who led the research says “Florida has a strong economy and adds jobs every year. That is a major factor in last year still being a big year for population growth, even though it was less than in the previous three years.”
The estimates released this week show the Sunshine State’s population grew by 331,000 between 2006 and 2007, compared with 431,000 between 2005 and 2006; 402,000 between 2004 and 2005; and 448,000 between 2003 and 2004, Smith said. Florida’s total population was estimated at 18,680,367 as of April 1, 2007.
“Job growth has been higher in Florida than the national average,” Smith says, adding that the largest increases in jobs during the past year have been in leisure and hospitality services, education and health service. “You also have to factor in Florida’s climate, with its relatively warm winters, which continues to attract people from the Northeast and Midwest from one year to the next.”
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