The U.S. Census released it 2016 population estimates this week, showing state-by-state growth from 2015 to 2016, and almost nowhere were gains bigger than in Florida.
The state’s population made a 367,525-person leap from 20.24 million to 20.61 million – an increase second only to Texas’.
However, looking at growth relative to population size, Florida wasn’t the No. 2 state, but No. 4, increasing 1.82 percent year over year.
Florida’s growth was not unique to the region, but a trend that spanned the entirety of the South.
“States in the South and West continued to lead in population growth,” said Ben Bolender, chief of the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Branch. “In 2016, 37.9 percent of the nation’s population lived in the South and 23.7 percent lived in the West.”
The population increases are a positive sign for real estate markets, because, historically, they have coincided with market growth.
Check out the below table to see how Florida’s growth compares to other top states’:
By the numbers
| Rank | Name | 2015 | 2016 | Numeric change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | 27,429,639 | 27,862,596 | 432,957 |
| 2 | Florida | 20,244,914 | 20,612,439 | 367,525 |
| 3 | California | 38,993,940 | 39,250,017 | 256,077 |
| 4 | Washington | 7,160,290 | 7,288,000 | 127,710 |
| 5 | Arizona | 6,817,565 | 6,931,071 | 113,506 |
| 6 | North Carolina | 10,035,186 | 10,146,788 | 111,602 |
| 7 | Georgia | 10,199,398 | 10,310,371 | 110,973 |
| 8 | Colorado | 5,448,819 | 5,540,545 | 91,726 |
| 9 | Oregon | 4,024,634 | 4,093,465 | 68,831 |
| 10 | South Carolina | 4,894,834 | 4,961,119 | 66,285 |
By the percentages
| Rank | Name | 2015 | 2016 | Percent change |
| 1 | Utah | 2,990,632 | 3,051,217 | 2.03 |
| 2 | Nevada | 2,883,758 | 2,940,058 | 1.95 |
| 3 | Idaho | 1,652,828 | 1,683,140 | 1.83 |
| 4 | Florida | 20,244,914 | 20,612,439 | 1.82 |
| 5 | Washington | 7,160,290 | 7,288,000 | 1.78 |
| 6 | Oregon | 4,024,634 | 4,093,465 | 1.71 |
| 7 | Colorado | 5,448,819 | 5,540,545 | 1.68 |
| 8 | Arizona | 6,817,565 | 6,931,071 | 1.66 |
| 9 | Washington, D.C. | 670,377 | 681,170 | 1.61 |
| 10 | Texas | 27,429,639 | 27,862,596 | 1.58 |