For years, Florida has been home to one of the largest populations of senior citizens. Millennials are starting to break that trend, however, and Florida’s age range looks like it’s going to shift toward a much younger demographic.
Senior citizens or not, 63% of Americans plan to work after retirement age — and many of those jobs are likely to be down south. Every single day, roughly 1,000 people are moving to the Sunshine state. Though a handful of older individuals are still heading down south to enjoy their elder years underneath the Florida sun, a large percentage of millennials are packing their bags and setting up their lives in Florida.
Business Insider reports on new data from the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, revealing the top 10 U.S. metropolitan areas whose populations of millennials (individuals born between 1981 and 1997, have increased the most over a five-year period from 2010 to 2015.
Though the majority of people wouldn’t suspect both Texas and Florida to be millennial hotspots, that’s what the Metropolitan Policy Program showed.
Coming in at number 9 on the list is Sarasota, Florida. With a metro population of 768,013 people, there are approximately 122,114 millennial residents living in this up-and-coming Florida city, with a younger population increase from 2010 to 2015 of 11.1%.
Cape Coral, Florida tied for number 7 on the list with a more obvious choice: Houston, Texas. Cape Coral’s current population is approximately 701,982 with about 126,357 millennial residents. The increase in millennial population during the five-year study period was 11.7%.
Finally, Orlando, Florida cracked the top-five and came in at number 4 on the list. Orlando’s metro population is 2.3 million with 596,785 current millennial residents. From 2010 to 2015, Orlando’s millennial population increased roughly 12.7%.
So why is Florida doing so well with younger movers?
Though the nice weather, the beaches, and the entertaining nightlife certainly play an important role on the average millennial’s decision to move south, so does the job market and overall financial standing of the sate.
According to Florida Trend, the state’s economy significantly grew in 2017 and expects to continue over the next few months.
“For 2018, from a business point of view, Florida’s economy benefits from a growing population, strong and growing employment and a rising number of visitors,” said Dr. Tony Villamil, founder and principal advisor of The Washington Economics Group and a former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs. “In fact, Florida is growing faster in terms of employment growth than the rest of the U.S., which is good for Florida real estate.”
Additionally, Florida is one of only seven states that currently don’t collect individual income taxes at the state level (along with South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, and Nevada).
“Overall, Florida is a positive, pro-business climate state and I don’t see that changing significantly,” Dr. Villamil added. “For U.S. economic activity, I see a lot of enthusiasm on tax reform and de-regulation — the U.S. economy is poised for a strong performance this year. We’ll likely see about 3% growth in the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) for the U.S.
Florida’s 2018 GDP growth is expected to reach between 3% and 3.5%.
