Tuesday, December 23, 2014
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — It's official: Florida has surpassed New York in population to become the third-most populous state in the union.
Figures released today by the U.S. Census Bureau show that Florida has at least 19.9 million residents. The number is likely higher because the Census uses the population as of July 1 to create its estimate.
New York had 19.7 million residents.
Florida added almost 300,000 new residents from 2013 to 2014, or a little more than 800 new residents a day. By contrast, New York grew by only 51,000 over that time period.
Florida likely reached the milestone sometime last spring, but it wasn't official until the Census said so.
An Associated Press analysis earlier this year showed that ex-New Yorkers represented about 1 in 10 new Florida residents. Migrants from other countries made up about a quarter of Florida's new residents.
Florida has a way to go before it catches up with California and Texas, the largest and second-largest states. California has 38.8 million residents; Texas has 27 million residents.