Florida is a playground for millions of sunseekers--snowbirds, beachcombers, college students on spring break, sports fans who watch and play outdoor games. Its low-lying peninsula probes deep into warm southern seas. Along its coasts, seemingly endless white-sand beaches meet the incoming surf. Inland, thousands of freshwater lakes nestle in semitropical settings. Everglades National Park--a haven of rare plants, birds, and animals--is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States. Heading farther south from the glades, the Overseas Highway hops for miles over the 60-island chain of Florida Keys.
Every week an average of more than 5,000 people move to Florida to stay. Many of them are seniors who have chosen to live on its east or west coasts during their retirement years. Some are political or economic refugees from Latin America, particularly the nearby Caribbean countries of Cuba and Haiti. Up to 200,000 Cubans have settled in Florida since the 1958 revolution.
With a population increase of more than 32 percent between the 1980 and 1990 censuses, Florida continues to be one of the fastest growing states in the nation. In 30 years it jumped from tenth to rank fourth in population. (Only California, New York, and Texas have more people, and only the less populated states of Nevada and Arizona had a greater percentage of population growth.) The permanent population is more than doubled by vacationers who crave the fantasies of Walt Disney World or the thrills of the Daytona International Speedway and Wet 'n Wild or the exotica of orchid, parrot, and monkey jungles.
The Sunshine State has balanced its tourist-based economy with trade, agriculture, and industry. It leads the states in the production of citrus fruits and the processing of citrus products.
Florida is a South Atlantic state. Georgia and Alabama border it on the north. The Atlantic Ocean is on the east. On the west are Alabama and the Gulf of Mexico. The Straits of Florida separate it from Cuba, which is only 92 nautical miles (170 kilometers) away. The peninsula ends in a chain of tiny coral and limestone islands called the Florida Keys. The southernmost mainland point of the United States is Cape Sable, and Key West is the southernmost city, outside of Hawaii. Florida is the site of the main United States commercial and cultural contact with Latin America. The area of the state is 58,664 square miles (151,939 square kilometers), including 4,511 square miles (11,683 square kilometers) of water surface. The distance from east to west across the northern panhandle is 367 miles (591 kilometers). The greatest width of the peninsula is 150 miles (241 kilometers). The length of the state, to the end of the keys, is 432 miles (695 kilometers). Florida has 1,350 miles (2,172 kilometers) of coastline.
