Florida

State of Florida

Flag of Florida Seal of Florida
State nickname: Sunshine State
Official languages	English
Capital	Tallahassee
Largest city	Jacksonville
Governor	Jeb Bush (R)
Senators	Bill Nelson (D) Mel Martinez (R)
Area  - Total  - % water	Ranked 22nd 170,451 km² 17.9
Population  - Total (2000)  - Density	Ranked 4th 15,982,378 114.43/km² (8th)
Admission into Union	March 3, 1845 (27th)
Time Zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4 Central: UTC-6/-5 (western panhandle)
Coordinates  - Latitude  - Longitude  - Width  - Length	24°30'N to 31°N 79°48'W to 87°38'W 260 km 800 km
Elevation  - Highest point  - Mean  - Lowest point	105 m 30 m 0 m
Abbreviations  - USPS  - ISO 3166-2	FL US-FL
Web site	www.myflorida.com

Florida is a Southern state in the United States, situated upon a large peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Straits of Florida. Florida is a Spanish adjective which means flowery. The peninsula was named by Juan Ponce de León, who landed on the coast on April 2, 1513, during Pascua Florida, a Spanish term for the Easter season. Pascua Florida Day April 2 is a legal holiday in Florida.[1] Its U.S. Postal abbreviation is FL while its traditional abbreviation is Fla.

History

Five of the flags that have been flown over Florida throughout the centuries.

Main article: History of Florida

Archaeological finds indicate that Florida had been inhabited for many thousands of years prior to any European settlements. Of the many indigenous people, the largest tribes were the Ais (tribe), Calusa, Tequesta, Timucua and the Tocobago tribes. Juan Ponce de León, a Spanish navigator, named this new land in honor of his discovery of the land on Easter Sunday, March 27, 1513, which is called by Spaniards Pascua Florida, "Holy Day of Flowers." From that date forward, the land became known as "La Florida." Over the following century, the Spanish and French both established settlements in Florida, with varying degrees of success. Spanish Pensacola was established by Don Tristan de Luna as the first European settlement in the current United States in 1559 (its settlement was interrupted by a hurricane). Six years later, in 1565, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés established Saint Augustine as the first permanent European settlement. These two cities would come to be the capitals of the British and Spanish colonies of East and West Florida.

The area of Florida diminished with the establishment of British colonies to the north and French colonies to the west. Control of parts of Florida passed among Spanish, British, and American control. Spain finally ceded Florida to the United States with the Adams-Onís Treaty in 1819, in exchange for the U.S. renouncing any claims on Texas. On March 3, 1845, Florida became the 27th state of the United States of America. Florida seceded from the Union on January 10, 1861 and was one of the founding members of the Confederate States of America (CSA, also known as the Confederacy). Florida joined the CSA on February 10, 1861. After the fall of the Confederacy in 1865, Florida was readmitted into the Union on June 25, 1868.

Until the mid-twentieth century, Florida was the least populous Southern state. However, migration from the Rust Belt combined with Florida's warm climate (tempered by the growing availability of air conditioning) made it a haven for newcomers. Today, Florida is the second most populous state in the South (behind Texas and the fourth most populous state in the United States.

The USS Florida was named in honor of this state.

Law and government

Main article: Government of Florida

The basic structure, duties, function, and operations of the Government of the State of Florida are defined and established by the Florida Constitution, which also establishes the basic law of the state and guarantees various rights and freedoms of the people. The state government consists of three separate branches, the judicial, executive and legislative. The Florida Legislature enacts legislation, such as those in the Florida Statutes, which are signed into law by the Governor of Florida.

The Florida Legislature has a Senate of 40 members and a House of 120 members. The current governor is Republican Jeb Bush, brother of President George W. Bush and son of former President George H. W. Bush.

Though Florida has traditionally been a Democratic state, in recent years explosive population growth has brought with it many Republicans, leaving the state approximately evenly split between the two parties. Despite this demographic parity, Republicans control the governorship and most other statewide elected offices, both houses of the state legislature, 18 of the state's 25 seats in the House of Representatives, and one of the state's two Senate seats. The 2000 Presidential election in Florida was extremely close. As such, and because of its high population and large number of electoral votes, Florida is considered by political analysts to be a key swing state in Presidential elections. The Tampa area, once a major center of Democratic union support, is now almost evenly split between registered Republicans and Democrats, making it part of the important I-4 Corridor swing region.

Taxation

Florida is one of the nine states which do not impose a personal income tax (list of others). The state sales tax rate is 6 (six) percent. Local governments may levy an additional local option sales tax of up to 1.5 percent. A locale's use tax rate is the same as its sales tax rate, including local options if any. Use taxes are payable for purchases made out of state and brought into Florida within 6 months of the purchase date. Other taxes are mostly levied on businesses. They include the following taxes: Corporate Income, Communication Services, Intangibles, Unemployment, Solid Waste, Documentary Stamps, Insurance Premium, Pollutants, and various fuel taxes. For more information visit the Florida Department of Revenue website at [2].

Geography

Map of Florida - PDF

Florida consists of the panhandle extending along the northern Gulf of Mexico and the large peninsula with the Atlantic Ocean as its eastern border and the Gulf of Mexico as its western border. It is bordered on the north by the states of Georgia and Alabama and on the west, at the end of the panhandle, by Alabama. It is near the countries of the Caribbean, particularly the Bahamas and Cuba.

At 345 feet (105 metres) above mean sea level, Britton Hill is the highest point in Florida. This is also the lowest highpoint of any U.S. state. Contrary to popular belief, however, Florida is not an entirely "flat" state. Some places, such as Clearwater, feature relatively high vistas rising 50 to 100 feet above the water. Much of the interior of Florida, typically 25 miles or more away from the coastline, features rolling hills with elevations ranging from 100 to 250 feet in many locations. Lake County holds the highest point of peninsular Florida, Sugarloaf Mountain , at 312 feet. The amount of topographical change will surprise many visitors.

Boundaries

The state line begins at the Atlantic, traveling west, south, and north up the thalweg of the Saint Mary's River. At the origin of that river, it then follows a straight line nearly due-west and slightly north, to the point where the confluence of the Flint River (from Georgia) and the Chattahoochee River (down the Alabama/Georgia line) used to form Florida's Apalachicola River. (This point is now under Lake Seminole since Woodruff Dam was built.) The border with Georgia continues north through the lake for a short distance up the former thalweg of the Chattahoochee, then with Alabama runs due west along latitude 31°N to the Perdido River, then south along its thalweg to the Gulf via Perdido Bay.

Climate

Hurricane Frances near peak strength.

Florida taken from NASA Shuttle Mission STS-95 on 31 October 1998.

The climate of Florida is tempered somewhat by its proximity to water. Most of the state has a humid subtropical climate with the extreme tip of Florida and the Florida Keys bordering on a true tropical climate. However, Florida averages 300 days of full sunshine a year. The seasons in Florida often called "Hot and Hotter" are actually determined more by precipitation than by temperature with warm, relatively dry winters and autumns (the dry season) and hot, wet springs and especially the summers (the wet season). The Gulf Stream has a moderating effect on Florida climate and although it is common for much of Florida to see a high summer temperature over 90 degrees Fahrenheit, it is not common for the mercury to go above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Florida. The hottest temperature ever recorded in the state was 109 °F set on June 29, 1931 in Monticello. The coldest was 2 °F below zero, on February 13, 1899 just 25 miles away, in Tallahassee. Mean high temperatures for late July are primarily in the low 90's. Mean low temperatures for late January range from the low 40's in North Florida to the mid-50's in South Florida.

While Florida's nickname is the "Sunshine State", severe weather is a common occurrence in Florida. Central Florida is known as the Lightning capital of the U.S. as it experiences more lightning strikes than anywhere else in the country. Statewide, Florida has the highest average precipitation of any state, due in large part to afternoon thunderstorms which are common throughout most of the state from late spring until the early autumn. However, a sunny day may be interrupted with a storm only to return to regular gorgeous weather. These thunderstorms, which are caused by airflow from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean colliding over the peninsula, seemingly "pop up" in the early afternoon and can often bring heavy downpours, high winds and sometimes tornadoes. This is frequently due to "onshore flow," or a collision of sea breezes from the east and west coasts. Florida leads the nation in tornadoes per square mile, although the tornadoes in Florida do not get as large as those in the Midwest or Great Plains. Hail is not an uncommon occurrence in some of the more severe thunderstorms.

Snow is a rare occurrence in Florida. During the Great Blizzard of 1899, Florida experienced blizzard conditions for possibly the first time since explorers had arrived. During that time, the Tampa Bay Area had "Gulf effect" snow, similar to lake effect snowfall. The Great Blizzard of 1899 was also the only time the temperature has fallen below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, registering -2° F in Tallahassee on February 13, 1899. The most widespread snowfall in Florida history happened in February 1978 with snow falling over much of the state in different times of the month, extending as far south as Homestead. Snow flurries fell on Miami Beach for the only time in recorded history. In 1989, there was a severe hard freeze that created lots of ice and also caused minor flurries in sections of the state and resulted in rolling blackouts due to power failures caused by massive demands on the power grid for heating.

Although some storms have formed out of season, hurricanes pose a threat during hurricane season, which is from June 1 to November 30. Florida saw a slew of destruction in 2004 when it was hit by a record four hurricanes. Hurricanes Charley (August 13), Frances (September 4-5), Ivan (September 16), and Jeanne (September 25-26) cumulatively cost forty-two billion dollars to the state. In 2005, Hurricane Dennis (July 10) became the fifth storm to strike Florida within 11 months. Later, Hurricane Katrina (August 25) passed through South Florida and Hurricane Rita (September 20) swept through the Florida Keys. Hurricane Wilma made landfall in Florida in the early morning of October 24 as a category 3 hurricane, with storm's eye hitting near Cape Romano, just south of Marco Island, according to National Hurricane Center.

Florida was also the site of the second most costly single weather disaster in U.S. history, Hurricane Andrew, which caused more than twenty-five billion dollars ($25,000,000,000) in damage when it struck on August 24, 1992. Among a long list of other infamous hurricane strikes were the 1926 Great Miami Hurricane, the Lake Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928, the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, Hurricane Donna in 1960, and Hurricane Opal in 1995.

Economy

A Space Shuttle launch from Kennedy Space Center.

The gross state product of Florida in 2003 was $550 billion. The per capita personal income was $30,098, ranking 26^th in the nation.

Florida's economy is heavily based on tourism. Warm weather most of the year and hundreds of miles of beach provide a thriving vacation spot for travelers from around the world. The large Walt Disney World Resort with four theme parks and over twenty hotels plus countless water parks, shopping centers and other facilities, located in Lake Buena Vista drives the economy of that area, along with more recent entries into the theme park arena such as the Universal Orlando Resort. The great amount of sales and tourist tax revenue is what allows the state to be one of the few to not levy a personal income tax. Other major industries include citrus fruit and juice production, banking, and phosphate mining within the Bone Valley region. With the arrival of the space program at Kennedy Space Center in the 1960s, Florida has attracted a large number of aerospace and military industries to the state. Florida did not have any state minimum wage laws until November 2, 2004, when voters passed a Constitutional Amendment requiring inflationary increases to the minimum wage every six months.

Historically, Florida's economy was based upon cattle farming and agriculture (especially sugar cane, citrus, tomatoes, and strawberries). As land speculators discovered Florida in the early 1900's, and when Plant and Flagler developed the railway systems, more people moved in, drawn by the usually good weather. From then on, tourism boomed, fueling a cycle of development and tourism that overwhelmed a great deal of farmland.

Other key industries, commercial fishing and water-based tourist activities (sports fishing and diving) are threatened by severe Red Tide outbreaks in 2004 and 2005 off the west coast.

Demographics

As of 2004, the state's population was estimated to be 17,397,161.

Race and ancestry

The largest reported ancestries in the 2000 Census were German (11.8%), Irish (10.3%), English (9.2%), American (8%) and Italian (6.3%).

Blacks, who during the cotton and sugar plantation era made up fully 50 percent of the state's population, have a large presence in the deeply southern middle Florida region of North Florida and in the cities of Jacksonville, Gainesville, and Fort Lauderdale. Transplanted Northerners are prominent on the West Coast, particularly in the Tampa suburbs. Floridians of British ancestry are dominant in most coastal cities, while Floridians of white American ancestry dominate the culturally Southern areas of inland North Florida. Florida's large and diverse Hispanic community consists particularly of Cubans in Miami and Tampa, Puerto Ricans in Tampa and Orlando as well as Dominicans in the latter, and Mexican migrant workers in inland West-Central and South Florida. There are also a number of Haitian Americans in Miami and other parts of Florida.

Native Floridians, especially those who have descended from long-time Florida families, are affectionately referred to as "Crackers." This is because many early settlers were cattle farmers, and used bullwhips to "crack" over the cattle to move them during the annual cattle drives westward across the central part of the state to the port of Tampa, as well as to kill rattlesnakes economically, thereby preventing the numerous rattlesnakes from killing cattle on the long cattle drives.

Florida is one of the only states in which Hispanics predominantly vote Republican. This descrepancy arises because people classified as "Hispanic" come from widely diverse backgrounds. People whose race is identified as "Hispanic" in Florida are mostly of Cuban descent, as opposed to Mexican descent (who live largely in the southwest of the U.S.) or Puerto Rican descent (who live largely in the northeast of the U.S.). Florida's fast-growing Hispanic population is heaviest in Miami, Orlando, and the Gulf Coast. Black Floridians are overwhelmingly Democratic voters. Blacks comprise a large fraction of the populations of North Florida, Fort Lauderdale, and the Tampa Bay Area.

Languages

As of 2000, 76.9% of Florida residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 16.5% speak Spanish. French is the third most spoken language at 2.2%, followed by German at 0.6% and Italian at 0.4%.

Article II, Section 9 of the Florida Constitution provides that "English is the official language of the State of Florida." This was adopted in 1988 by a vote following an Initiative Petition.

Religion

Florida is mostly Protestant, but with a growing Roman Catholic community due to immigration. There is also a sizable Jewish community in some parts of Florida which makes Florida unique among Southern states because no other Southern state has a large Jewish community. Florida's current religious affiliations are shown in the table below:

• Christian – 82%
  • Protestant – 54%
    • Baptist – 19%
    • Methodist – 6%
    • Presbyterian – 4%
    • Episcopal – 3%
    • Lutheran – 3%
    • Pentecostal – 3%
    • Other Protestant – 16%
  • Roman Catholic – 26%
  • Other Christian – 2%
• Jewish – 4%
• Other Religions – 1%
• Non-Religious – 13%

Important cities, towns, and communities

Jacksonville

Miami

Naples

Orlando

Tallahassee

Tampa

Main articles: List of cities in Florida & Florida locations by per capita income