Where does the Latino community prefer to live in Miami?

Central Florida is becoming the preferred area for Latinos who emigrate from their countries to settle in the state, over traditional counties such as Miami-Dade and Broward.

Orlando and Tampa recorded the highest rates of growth in their Hispanic population, while Miami-Dade County continues to concentrate the largest number of Latinos in Florida, with 1.8 million residents, equivalent to two-thirds of the total population of the county.

This was revealed by the most recent survey by the Census Bureau, according to which counties such as Hernando, Lake, Polk and Pasco, in Orlando and Tampa, registered last year the rates with the highest growth of Hispanics, ranging from 6.5% to 7.2%.

This growth in the center of the state has been influenced in recent years by the arrival of Puerto Ricans, who continue to face the consequences of the economic crisis that the island has been experiencing for more than half a decade.

For its part, Miami-Dade registered between 2015 and 2016 an increase in its Latino population of only 1.5%, which is equivalent to less than 27,000 residents.

Broward, Florida’s second county with the largest number of Hispanics (more than half a million, equivalent to more than a quarter of its total population), and Orange, the third on the list with more than 400,000 Latinos or more than 30% of its population, had a growth of this population group of 3.3% and 4.5%, respectively, that is, less than 18,000 residents.

The census also noted that the Hispanic community is growing in St. John’s in Jacksonville, where there was 7.5% growth between July 2015 and July 2016, equivalent to 15,500 people.

On the other hand, Florida’s population grew over the past year by more than 367,000 residents, the second-highest increase in the country, after Texas. And it consolidated itself as the third most populous state in the United States, with 20.6 million inhabitants, behind California and Texas.

By 2011, Miami-Dade’s Latino population was composed mostly of Cubans (34%), Colombians (4.6%), Nicaraguans (4.2%) and Puerto Ricans (3.7%).