Florida

Florida is a Southern state in the United States. It is known as the Sunshine State. "Florida" is a Spanish adjective which means "flowery." It was discovered by Spanish explorers during the Easter season, which is called Pascua Florida in Spanish. The U.S. Postal abbreviation is FL.

Demographics

As of 2004, the state's population was estimated to be 17,397,161.

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Race and Ancestry

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  White65.4%

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Hispanic 16.8%

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Black14.6%

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Asian1.7%

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Native American0.3%

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Mixed Race2.4%

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Blacks, who during the cotton and sugar plantation era made up fully 50 percent of the state's population, have a large presence in the deeply southern middle Florida region of North Florida and in the cities of Jacksonville, Gainesville, and Fort Lauderdale. Transplanted Northerners are prominent on the West Coast, particularly in the Tampa suburbs. Floridians of British ancestry are dominant in most coastal cities, while Floridians of American ancestry dominate the culturally Southern areas of inland North Florida. Florida's large and diverse Hispanic community consists particularly of Cubans in Miami and Tampa, Puerto Ricans in Tampa and Orlando, and Mexican migrant workers in inland West-Central and South Florida. There is also a number of Haitian Americans in Miami and other parts of Florida.

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Native Floridians who have descended from long-time Florida families are affectionately referred to as "Crackers." This is because many early settlers were cattle farmers, and used bullwhips to "crack" over the cattle to move them.

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Languages

As of 2000, 76.9% of Florida residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 16.5% speak Spanish. French is the third most spoken language at 2.2%, followed by German at 0.6% and Italian at 0.4%.

Related Topics:
English - Spanish - French - German - Italian

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Religion

Florida is mostly Protestant, but with a growing Roman Catholic community due to immigration. There is also a sizable Jewish community in some parts of Florida which makes Florida unique among Southern states (no other Southern state has a large Jewish community). Florida's current religious affiliations are shown in the table below:

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• Christian – 82%
• Protestant – 54%
• Baptist – 19%
• Methodist – 6%
• Presbyterian – 4%
• Episcopal – 3%
• Lutheran – 3%
• Pentecostal – 3%
• Other Protestant – 16%
• Roman Catholic – 26%
• Other Christian – 2%
• Jewish – 4%
• Other Religions – 1%
• Non-Religious – 13%