Even with a reporting staff that can boast a fourth-generation Floridian and a fifth-generation Floridian, we at Trend are constantly surprised at what we think we know about Florida but don't. We think you may be, too, and in that vein, along with the Economic Yearbook reporting in this issue, we'd like to offer you a way to test how much you know about the state. For the answers, you can either wait until next month's issue [or see below].
General
About how many people live in Florida? About 10 million? 15 million? 18 million?
About where does the state rank in population among the states -- is it in the top five? top 10?
What percentage of Florida residents were born here? 10%? 30%? 50%? 75%?
About how many people move to Florida each day? 300? 600? 900? 1,200?
Would you say that Florida is primarily a rural or urban state? Are Florida's urban areas becoming more densely settled or less?
How big is the state's seasonal population? Is it closer to 5% of the total? 10%? 15%? 20%?
What are the factors credited with having the most to do with developing Florida since the 1950s?
Which is closer? Jacksonville-Raleigh, or Jacksonville-Miami? Pensacola-Key West, or Pensacola-Chicago? Orlando-Tampa, or Orlando-Jacksonville? Miami-Havana, or Miami-Orlando?
Who's the biggest non-governmental landowner in Florida?
How many counties does Florida have? What's the most populous county? The least?
Where are the state's fastest-growing counties -- in rural or urban areas?
Where are Florida's poorest counties (those with the highest percentage of people living in poverty)? Do they tend to be rural or urban areas?
What's the biggest agricultural county in the state by dollar volume? What's the industry?
Locate on a map: The St. Johns River. Panama City. Coral Gables. Naples. The Suwannee River. West Palm Beach.
Jobs
What sector of Florida's economy employs the most people? How does the state's unemployment rate compare with the nation's?
Where are most of the counties with the highest rates of unemployment concentrated?
What types of jobs are projected to grow at the fastest rate between 1996 and 2006? Service jobs? Computer related jobs? Healthcare?
What's the annual median income for a farm worker? $5,000? $10,000? $15,000? $20,000? How much does a tomato picker earn per bucket?
About what percentage of households in Florida earn less than $20,000? 5%? 10%? 25%? 30%?
About what percentage of Florida's manufacturing workforce is unionized? 2%? 5%? 15%? 20%?
Demographics
What percentage of Florida's population is older than 65? What are the two fastest-growing population groups? 0-14? 15-24? 25-44? 45-64? 65 and older?
Compared to 30 years ago, does Florida's population have a higher percentage or lower percentage of African-American residents? What about the percentage of Hispanic residents?
Economy
What are Florida's two biggest exports? Agricultural products? Computer equipment? Military products? Office supplies? Chemicals? Fertilizer?
Who are Florida's two biggest trading partners overseas? France? Singapore? Brazil? Germany? Japan? Colombia? Venezuela? Hong Kong?
Are most of the oranges grown in Florida eaten, or consumed as juice? How long have oranges been grown commercially in Florida?
Who's the biggest private sector employer in the state? How does Florida's average income compare with the nation's -- higher, lower or about the same?
Taxes
What's the biggest source of tax revenue for the state? Florida has no state income tax. Are most states like Florida in that regard or different?
Kids
How does Florida take care of its children, measured by generally recognized standards of child well-being -- Above average? Average? Below average?
What percentage of children in Florida schools are eligible for free lunches? A tenth? A quarter? A third?
Issues
Who spends the most on lobbyists in Tallahassee?
What's the No. 1 issue identified by businesses belonging to the Florida Chamber of Commerce?
What percentage of students entering community college in Florida need remediation in English, math or both?
History
Who or what is Hernando DeSoto? Leroy Collins? Rosewood? Andrew Jackson? Henry Flagler? The Miccosukee? American Beach? Ed Ball?
Bonus
Where is Florida's oldest bar?
ANSWERS
General
About how many people live in Florida?
Florida's population has passed 15 million; the state's population has increased by 2.3 million per decade since 1940. About 22 million are expected to live here in 2015 (a 41% increase over 2000).
Where does the state rank in population compared to the other states? Florida is the fourth most populous, after California, New York and Texas. Florida is projected to be third in the nation by 2025.
What percentage of state's residents were born here?
More than a third, 35%. By comparison, about 80% of those living in Pennsylvania were born there.
How many people move to Florida each day?
About 645, down from 875 a day in the 1980s.
Is Florida primarily a rural or urban state?
Florida is decidedly urban as opposed to rural: About 84% of residents live in urban areas and within 10 miles of the coast. Census data indicate the urban population was greater than the rural population by 1930. Interestingly, however, more Floridians now live in unincorporated areas than corporated areas, a testament to suburban sprawl. The urban areas have become less densely settled -- Florida's urban population density has fallen from about 2,200 persons per square mile in 1973 to about 1,200.
How big is the state's seasonal population?
The average monthly seasonal population is about 620,000, around 4% of the total.
What are the factors generally credited with having the most to do with developing Florida since the 1950s?
1. Aside from the state's climate, an influx of soldiers, workers and their families poured into Florida for training at military bases set up by the feeral government during World War II.
2. Social Security provided many retirees with a more comfortable retirement. 3. Air conditioning and mosquito control made Florida more habitable year-round.
4. Air travel brought the state's tourist destinations closer to vacationers from other states and South America.
5. Fidel Castro's takeover of Cuba sparked an exodus of educated, middle- and upper-class Cubans to South Florida.
Which are closer?
Jacksonville is closer to Miami (326 miles) than to Raleigh (416).
As the crow flies, Pensacola is closer to Key West, but in driving miles, Pensacola's 793-mile remove from Key West puts it closer to Chicago (786 miles).
Orlando is closer to Tampa (77 miles) than to Jacksonville (130 miles). Miami is closer to Orlando than Havana -- 201 miles vs. 228.
Who's the biggest non-governmental landowner in Florida?
The St. Joe Co., Peter Rummell, CEO, owned about 1 million acres, most in timberland, but is selling some 800,000.
How many counties does Florida have?
There are 67 counties in Florida.
What's the most populous county in the state?
Miami-Dade County, with more than 2 million people, is the most populous. Lafayette County, about 150 miles west, southwest of Jacksonville, is the least populous, with about 7,000 people.
Where are the state's fastest growing counties -- are they rural or urban areas?
In absolute numbers of new residents, Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade are the fastest growing counties.
By percentage change, Collier, Charlotte and Osceola are the fastest-growing. During 1990s, six counties grew by more than 50% -- Charlotte, Collier, Flagler, Gilchrist, Hernando and Osceola.
Where are Florida's poorest counties?
Counties with high percentages of residents living in poverty are scattered throughout the state. Most would be considered rural counties.
In south and southwest Florida, Miami-Dade, Hendry and Hardee. Southwest of Jacksonville in northern Florida are Putnam Bradford, and Dixie. In the north central Panhandle area, Lafayette, Madison, Hamilton, Holmes, Gadsden and Calhoun.
What's the biggest agricultural county in the state?
Palm Beach County's billion-dollar sugar industry makes it the leading agricultural county in the state.
Jobs
What sector of Florida's economy employs the most people?
Services, about 35% of total non-agricultural employment. The number of service jobs increased by 5.2% in 1997-98.
How does the state's unemployment rate compare with the nation's? Florida's unemployment rate was 4.3%. The U.S. unemployment rate was 4.4%.
Where are the counties with the highest unemployment rates concentrated? One cluster of counties with large percentages of unemployed people are in an arc to the west and north of Lake Okeechobee: Highlands (8.4%); St. Lucie (9.9%); Hardee (11.4%); Glades (8.8%), and Hendry (9.7%).
In the Panhandle, Gulf (14%); and Holmes (9.1%), on Alabama border in Panhandle. All have jobless rates of more than 8.1%.
Miami-Dade, the county with largest number of unemployed, has a 7% unemployment rate.
What types of jobs are projected to grow at the fastest rate between 1996 and 2006?
Systems analyst, computer support specialist, physical therapists, computer engineers, home health aides, emergency medical technicians, paralegals, respiratory therapists.
What's the annual median income for a farm worker?
A farm worker typically earns between $7,000-$10,000 a year. Depending on the company for which they work, tomato pickers earn between 35-40 cents a bucket.
About what % of households in Florida earn less than $20,000?
Between 20%-25%.
About what percentage of Florida's manufacturing work force is unionized?
4.5%, one of the five lowest rates in country.
Demographics
What percentage of Florida's population is older than 65?
Nearly 18.5%.
What are the two fastest growing population groups?
15-24, 45-64
Compared to 30 years ago, does Florida's population have a higher percentage or lower percentage of African-American residents?
The percentage of Florida residents who are African-American has fallen from 18% to around 14%. The percentage of residents who are Hispanic has risen from around 1% 40 years to around 15%.
Economy
What are Florida's two biggest exports?
Data processing equipment and parts for office equipment. Fertilizer is third: The state supplies 25% of world's phosphate.
Who are Florida's two biggest trading partners overseas?
Total volume of import-export: Brazil and Japan, followed by Colombia, Venezuela and the Domincan Republic.
By volume of exports: South America (primarily Brazil and Colombia) account for 48% of Florida exports, followed by the Caribbean (15%), Central America, Europe and Asia (9%).
How are most of the oranges grown in Florida used?
Most Florida oranges are consumed as juice. Oranges are not native to Florida; Columbus brought them here. The first groves were planted in St. Augustine in 1570. Over the years, the industry has migrated southward. The biggest boost the industry was the development of frozen concentrated orange juice in 1945, although the trend in recent years is away from frozen juice; more than half is now ready to serve, not frozen.
Who's the biggest private sector employer in the state?
Winn-Dixie, with 136,000 employees. Second biggest is Darden Restaurants.
A note: If it were a nation, Florida would have the 15th biggest economy in the world.
Taxes
What's the biggest source of tax revenue for the state of Florida?
Sales tax accounts for 57% of the state's tax revenue. Selective taxes on beer, insurance, tobacco, public utilities, gasoline bring in 19%; a variety of "other'' taxes, including the intangibles tax and doc stamps, account for 11%, while license taxes account for 7% and corporate income taxes tax account for 6%
Most states have an income tax. Florida and six others don't.
Kids
How does Florida take care of its children, measured by generally recognized standards of child well-being -- Above average? Average? Below average?
By virtually every measure of child welfare, Florida ranks poorly. The state is seventh nationally in the number of children in extreme poverty and seventh in the rate of children without health insurance. Florida ranks third in the number of single-parent families, fourth in the rate of teenagers not in school. Florida is 46th in education funding, and ranks 47th in terms of a child's likelihood of going to college.
What percentage of children in Florida schools are eligible for free lunches? More than a third -- 36.5%.
Issues
Who spends the most on lobbyists in Tallahassee?
Lawyers. Then doctors. One in five lobbyists in Tally last year worked on health care.
What's no. 1 issue identified by Fla. Chamber of Commerce among its membership? Job readiness/education.
What percentage of students entering community college need remediation in English, Math or both?
80%
History
Who or what was:
Hernando DeSoto: DeSoto was a Spanish explorer who arrived in the Tampa Bay area in 1539 with a troupe of 600 soldiers. 12 priests, two women, 223 horses and a herd of pigs. He moved northward through the interior of Florida in a fruitless search for gold, slaughtering members of native tribes as he went. He marched on through Georgia and the Carolinas before dying on the banks of the Mississippi River. Both DeSoto and Hernando counties are named for him.
Rosewood: Florida led the nation in the rate of lynchings of African Americans in the early part of this century. Blacks and black communities were subject to violence at even a hint of wrongdoing. Rosewood, a community in Levy County near Cedar Key, was obliterated by a white mob in 1923, with about 17 residents killed. Four years before Rosewood, Ocoee, a black community near Orlando, was attacked and wiped out, with at least four dead.
Leroy Collins: Perhaps the most revered governor in Florida's history, he was elected in 1956. He combined personal integrity with the progressive business values of what came to be called the "New South'' and initiated government reform. Collins did not move to actively oppose integration, allowing it to proceed slowly; the relative lack of social disorder that attended desegregation in Florida, and his later service as director of the Community Relations Service in the administration of Pres. Lyndon Johnson, left Collins with the reputation of a social progressive.
Andrew Jackson: Jackson, while a U.S. army general in the early 1800s, led an incursion by U.S. troops that eventually resulted in Spain ceding Florida to the United States. Jacksonville is named after him.
Henry Flagler: A partner of John D. Rockefeller, Flagler moved to Florida in the 1880s, building grand tourist hotels in St. Augustine and Palm Beach. He also built a railroad, the Florida East Coast, to bring tourists south from Jacksonville to his properties, eventually extending the railroad to Miami and then to Key West. He is generally credited with opening up the eastern coast of Florida to development.
The Miccosukee: One of two federally recognized Indian tribes in Florida, with about 600 enrolled members. The Seminoles are the other tribe; the Miccosukee are an offshoot of the larger tribe. The Miccosukee live on "special use' land set aside for them within the Everglades National Park. In a succession of wars in the 1800s, most of Florida's native American population was either killed or forcibly resettled in the West.
American Beach: Near Fernandina Beach north of Jacksonville, one of a handful of beaches open to African-Americans during the days of segregation. Beach properties are still owned by African-Americans, some in families for generations.
Ed Ball: Florida's premier banker in the 1950s and the power behind the St. Joe Paper Co., which came to be Florida's biggest private landholder. Possibly the most powerful man in Florida during his era, Ball directed the Alfred I. du Pont estate from Jacksonville. He is credited with having directed a vicious and effective campaign against Sen. Claude Pepper in 1950, who was running against George Smathers, whom Ball had handpicked for the job.
Sources for historical items: Florida: A Short History, by Michael Gannon.
The Florida Handbook, 1997-98.
Bonus
Where is Florida's oldest bar?
The Palace Saloon in Fernandina Beach. Shortly before press time for Florida Trend's April issue, the bar burned; its owners plan to reopen it.