Collier County

More than 1 million people are projected to be living in Lee County within 25 years, according to a study released Monday by the University of Florida.

That revelation comes even though the statistics show that the state’s population growth has slowed to its lowest level in more than 60 years.

Still, said Stan Smith, director of the university’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research, “there still will be pretty substantial growth.”

With Southwest Florida's population growing again and state-mandated caps on classroom sizes, Lee and Collier County school districts will need to hire more teachers in the next two years and middle school instructors may be the highest priority.

The Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation predicts the state will need to hire about 3,400 more middle school teachers by the 2012-13 academic year. Lee and Collier will need to hire 61 and 24 additional middle school teachers in just math, science and language arts subjects by 2012, the agency reported.

Though Florida’s population grew enough to earn two new congressional seats, the number of children born in this state has dropped markedly since the economic downturn began, records show.

The declines are part of a broader national trend that started in 2008, according to a federal report released Tuesday.

U.S. births dropped 3 percent between 2008 and 2009 — about 4.1 million, compared with about 4.2 million, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

TAMPA - The minority population in the Tampa Bay area grew tremendously in the past decade, with Hispanics leading the way, according to recently released census estimates.

The numbers, pegged to July 1, 2009, show the counties of West Central Florida became more diverse as they grew over the course of the last decade. In many cases, minority groups grew several times faster than the general population.

The following represent city-, county-, and regional-level news stories around the state relating to the BEBR Population Program's recent release of the April 1, 2009 preliminary population estimates.

Brevard's population dipped last year - Florida Today - August 24, 2009
UF: Polk Is Losing People - The Ledger - August 22, 2009

Non-Hispanic whites are leaving Broward and Palm Beach counties in droves. Meanwhile, the dramatic growth of Hispanics and other minority groups has slowed to a trickle.

The latest U.S. census estimates, released today, show that the number of non-Hispanic whites in Broward County went down by more than 24,000 between 2006 and 2007, single-handedly accounting for the county's drop in total population. In Palm Beach County, that number dropped by more than 9,000.

Collier County is changing the way it plans for the future.

A new estimate for Collier’s population into the future shows a slower growth rate than previously anticipated, possibly reducing the need to expand certain types of projects for roads and utilities.

Rather than the 77 percent growth anticipated by Collier County government during the next 22 years, the county’s new population model calls for 64 percent growth in the county’s permanent population through 2030.