Along with the oft-pronounced, desperately wished for death of the suburbs, no demographic narrative thrills the mainstream news media more than the decline of the Sun Belt, the country’s southern rim extending from the Carolinas to California. Since the housing bubble collapse in 2007, commentators have heralded “the end of the Sun Belt boom.”
South Florida is behind only New York in having the widest gap between rich and poor, according to a new Census analysis of major U.S. metropolitan areas.
Florida, once the nation's oldest state, is losing some of its gray.
Thanks to a lull in retiree migration and an increase in working-age adults, Florida has dropped three places to become the fifth-oldest state in the nation, according to census data released Thursday.
Florida's population — already among the oldest in the country — is getting even older, but the rest of the nation is not too far behind.
New census data shows Florida's median population was 40.7 in 2010, two years older than in 2000. The increase reflects both the state's continuing allure for retirees, and the aging of the nation's largest generation: the baby boomers.
WASHINGTON — One of the hallmarks of the American economy has been the mobility of its people — the speed with which they pulled up stakes to seek better opportunities elsewhere. But the deep recession ambushed long-running population trends, sharply slowing the migration to the Sunbelt while giving a boost to states with more jobs and affordable housing.
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.
