If you picked up the most recent Time magazine, you probably saw a story captioned: ``A Shrinking Sunshine State.''

And, if you're like many Floridians who are sick of stewing in traffic, you got your hopes up.

The University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research, which tracks population trends, recently reported that the state lost 58,294 residents between April 2008 and April 2009.

Lillian Vickers doesn’t have to think very long about why she left Florida.

“Three hurricanes in 15 months. It got to be too much,” said Vickers, who relocated to Dothan from Okeechobee, Fla., in October 2006.

How she and her husband — and the family dog — came here, of all places, had to do with proximity. Vickers has family in Tallahassee and a niece in Enterprise, and because her husband is retired military, they liked being close to Fort Rucker.

1/2 PRICE BOOK SALE! Reduced to $25.

Get both the 2008 Book and the Florida Statistical Abstract on CD-ROM as a set for only $75

AUBER 2009 Award of Excellence in Publications Winner

Acclaimed for over forty years as the state data book, and recognized nationally by the Association for University Business and Economic Research as a 2009 Award of Excellence in Publications award winner in its class, the Florida Statistical Abstract continues to set the standard for reliable economic and demographic data, containing the largest collection of state and county statistics on demographic, social, and economic conditions in Florida. Selected national and comparative data for other states and countries are also included.

Counts of the U.S. Hispanic population are available every ten years from the decennial census, but for the years following or between censuses, estimates have to be created using data and techniques that are expected to track changes in that population over time. Such estimates are a recent development and there is currently no standard methodology that has been widely used, carefully documented, and rigorously tested. In this article, we describe an experimental methodology for estimating the Hispanic population of states and counties.

Discontinued publication. CD-ROM only available $40.