Americans are still moving to Florida. They might regret it.
A lot has changed in 2022, but one thing stayed the same: Americans kept moving to Florida in large numbers. Some of them, however, are likely to regret it.
From July 2021 to July 2022, Florida's population grew to over 22 million people, according to new Census Bureau data. The 1.9% increase was the largest of any US state over this period, just exceeding Idaho and South Carolina — which saw their populations grow by 1.8% and 1.7%, respectively.
"While Florida has often been among the largest-gaining states, this was the first time since 1957 that Florida has been the state with the largest percent increase in population," Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Population Division at the Census Bureau, said in a press release.
Even as population growth has slowed in the US and turned negative in some states, Florida's population has grown every year since 1946, increasing ninefold from a population of roughly 2 million that year. The Census Bureau has attributed some of the state's early growth to the introduction of air-conditioning in the 1950s, during which time Florida's population grew an average of 6% a year. In more recent years, as the growth in remote work has allowed many Americans to live wherever they want, warmer temperatures and the lack of an income tax are among the perks drawing millions to the state.