Florida

People reached Florida at least 14,000 years ago.⁠[1]

Around 12,000 B.C. the first people, later called PaleoIndians, moved into Florida in search of game such as mastodons and horses; around 5,000 B.C. this developed into the Archaic culture, with the first permanent coastal settlements; around A.D. 500 the Woodland culture emerged, with year-round settlements and the first farmers; and around 1200 the Mississippian culture arose, led by chiefdoms and marked by intensive corn farming, earthen mounds and long-distance trade. Around 1500 the three major Native cultures of Florida were the Timucua, Apalachee and Calusa.⁠[2]

At the time of European contact in the 16th century, several hundred thousand Native Americans lived in Florida.⁠[3]

In 1513 the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León became the first documented European to land on the Florida peninsula and named it Florida, reportedly because he landed during the Easter season (Spanish “Pascua Florida”). In 1521 he returned to found a colony near present-day Fort Myers, was mortally wounded by the Calusa and died later that year in Havana.⁠[3][2]

The expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez in 1527–1536 ended in failure, and in 1539–1542 Hernando de Soto’s expedition crossed the Southeast, its survivors leaving for Cuba after his death. From the 1540s European diseases devastated Florida’s Native peoples, about 90% of whom died within a century. Tristán de Luna’s colony at Pensacola, founded in 1559, failed within a year. The French, under Jean Ribault, first explored Florida in 1562 and built Fort Caroline in 1564.⁠[2]

In 1565 a Spanish expedition led by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine and then massacred most of the French colonists. The State Library and Archives describes St. Augustine as the first permanent European settlement in North America.⁠[3][2]

In the 1560s Jesuits established Spanish missions in the Southeast; the Franciscans took over in 1596 and eventually ran more than 100 missions in Florida and present-day Georgia. The first enslaved Africans were brought to St. Augustine in 1581, and in 1586 Francis Drake sacked and burned the town. The Timucua rebelled in 1656, the year Mission San Luis was founded near present-day Tallahassee. Spain built the Castillo de San Marcos in 1672–1695 with Native and enslaved labor and established Pensacola in 1698. The English destroyed the Spanish missions in 1702–1704; Fort Mose, a free Black settlement, was established in 1738; and in 1740 the English general James Oglethorpe invaded St. Augustine.⁠[2]

In 1763 England received Florida in exchange for Havana, replaced military government with civilian officials and divided the territory into East and West Florida. In the 1760s Creek peoples moved into Florida; they later became known as the Seminoles. During the American Revolution Florida remained loyal to Britain and Loyalists flocked to St. Augustine. In 1783 Florida’s first newspaper, the East-Florida Gazette, began publication, and the Treaty of Paris returned Florida to Spain, after which most English settlers left.⁠[3][2]

In 1816 Andrew Jackson invaded Florida in pursuit of the Seminoles, beginning the First Seminole War; in 1817 he burned villages, executed two British subjects and seized St. Marks and Pensacola. Under the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819–1821, Spain transferred Florida to the United States.⁠[2]

When Florida became a U.S. territory, Andrew Jackson served as its governor. In 1822 Congress established a territorial government, and William Duval became the first non-military governor. Tallahassee became the capital in 1824, and the legislature began meeting there. Florida’s first census, in 1830, counted 34,730 residents.⁠[2]

As a territory, Florida attracted many settlers from the older Southern plantation areas of VirginiaVirginiaVirginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state whose capital is Richmond. It entered the Union on June 25, 1788, as the 10th state, and had a population of 8,631,393 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry, the Carolinas and Georgia. The original capitol was a log cabin built in 1824.⁠[1][4]

In 1838 fifty-six commissioners from 20 counties met at St. Joseph to draft a constitution for statehood.⁠[2]

In 1832 the Seminoles were made to accept a treaty calling for their removal to present-day OklahomaOklahomaOklahoma is a U.S. state whose capital is Oklahoma City. It was admitted to the Union on November 16, 1907, as the 46th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 3,959,353.Open the full entry. After Osceola refused to give up his land, the Second Seminole War broke out in 1835 and lasted until 1842, when the U.S. government ended it without a treaty or surrender. Within about a decade most of the Seminoles had been moved to Oklahoma.⁠[3][2]

After statehood, plantation agriculture expanded on the labor of enslaved African Americans. The brick Old Capitol was completed in 1845. By the time of statehood only a few hundred Seminoles remained in the state.⁠[2][4][5]

The Third Seminole War of 1855–1858 was the Seminoles’ last conflict with the federal government.⁠[5][2]

On January 10, 1861, Florida’s Secession Convention voted to withdraw from the United States, a move led by slave owners, and the state joined the Confederacy. Confederates attacked Fort Pickens that October, and in 1862 Union forces occupied Fernandina, Jacksonville and St. Augustine. Confederates defeated Union forces at Olustee in 1864, and in 1865 cadets and Home Guards saved Tallahassee at the Battle of Natural Bridge.⁠[2][5]

Florida escaped the heavy devastation suffered by other Southern states, and no decisive battles were fought on its soil; Union forces held many coastal towns and forts while the interior remained under Confederate control.⁠[1]

In 1865 Governor Milton died by suicide, federal control began and slavery ended; Emancipation Day is observed on May 12.⁠[2]

During Reconstruction the U.S. Army occupied Florida; a new, federally mandated state constitution took effect in 1868, the year the second state seal was introduced, and Republicans held the governorship from 1868 to 1877. Reconstruction ended in 1877, when Democrats led by former Confederates regained control of state government and later enacted laws on disenfranchisement and segregation. Brown Theological Institute, later Edward Waters College, was founded in 1866 to educate freed people.⁠[5][2]

Phosphate was discovered in the Peace River valley in 1881 and mining began at once, and in the late 19th century the lumber industry grew rapidly in northern and western Florida. A railroad reached Pensacola in 1883, and in 1884 Henry B. Plant completed his north–south line to Tampa. In the last quarter of the 19th century large-scale commercial agriculture, especially cattle raising, grew in importance.⁠[5][1]

In 1885 a new state constitution replaced that of 1868 and served as the framework of government until 1968. Henry Flagler completed the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine in 1888, and Henry Plant opened the Tampa Bay Hotel in 1891. The State Board of Health was created in 1889 after a yellow fever outbreak. Construction of Flagler’s railroad to Key West began in 1902, and the line opened in 1912.⁠[2]

In 1900 James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, faculty members at the Florida Normal and Industrial Institute, wrote the song known as the “Negro National Anthem.” Mary McLeod Bethune opened her school in Daytona Beach in 1904, and the Buckman Act of 1905 reorganized seven state institutions into three, segregated by gender and race.⁠[2]

Drainage of the Everglades began in 1901, and Everglades National Park was established in 1947.⁠[2]

In 1916 Royal Palm State Park was created on Paradise Key as the first protected area in the Everglades; it later became the nucleus of the national park. An act passed on May 30, 1934, authorized a park of 2,164,480 acres (875,953 hectares), to be acquired through public or private donation, and on December 6, 1947, President Harry S Truman formally dedicated Everglades National Park at a ceremony in Everglades City.⁠[6]

During World War I Florida hosted training for servicemen, particularly aviators. In 1918 Florida ratified the Eighteenth Amendment, which banned the sale and consumption of alcohol.⁠[2]

The Florida land boom began in 1920. In 1923 the state ended the leasing of convicts to timber companies, and the Rosewood community was destroyed by racial violence. In 1926 the economic bubble burst as money and credit ran out and banks and investors lost faith in “paper” millionaires; a hurricane that year deepened the downturn, and another hurricane in 1928 ended the land boom in South Florida, the year the Tamiami Trail opened.⁠[2][1]

Florida’s population in 1930 was 1,468,211. In 1933 Governor Sholtz brought New Deal programs to Florida. In 1935 the Florida Park Service was created, the Labor Day Hurricane struck the Keys, Claude Neal was lynched in Marianna and “Old Folks at Home” became the state song. The state ended the poll tax in 1937.⁠[2]

World War II spurred Florida’s economic development; its mild year-round climate made it a major training center for U.S. and Allied soldiers, sailors and aviators.⁠[1]

Banana River Naval Air Station opened in 1940 and later became Cape Canaveral. In 1942 four German agents landed at Ponte Vedra Beach and were captured by the FBI after fishermen discovered them, and in 1943 the Wainwright shipyard in Panama City built more than 100 Liberty ships.⁠[2]

After the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in BrownBrown UniversityBrown University is a private nonprofit research university in Providence, Rhode Island, and a member of the Ivy League. Chartered by Rhode Island's colonial legislature in 1764, it is known for its undergraduate Open Curriculum, which has no common required core. Christina H. Paxson, president since July 2012, announced on August 3, 2026, that the 2026–27 academic year would be her last in office. As of October 1, 2026, the search for Brown's 20th president remained underway.Open the full entry v. Board of Education, Florida resisted it; in 1957 the legislature passed an “interposition” resolution rejecting the decision, which Governor Leroy Collins rejected. That same year the Seminole Tribe of Florida formed as a political entity.⁠[2]

The Cuban Revolution of 1959 set off a wave of immigration, bringing Cuban exiles to Florida in the late 1950s and 1960s, and the Mariel boatlift of 1980 increased Cuban immigration further.⁠[2][5]

On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard launched from Cape Canaveral. The cape was renamed Cape Kennedy in 1963 and reverted to its original name in 1973. In 1969 Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy and Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon. The first space shuttle launched from the Kennedy Space Center in 1981, and in 1986 the shuttle Challenger exploded after launch, halting the shuttle program for years.⁠[2]

On July 1, 1962, the launch facility was given full NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the U.S. federal agency responsible for the civilian space program, aeronautics research and space science. Established by law in 1958 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., it has run programs including Mercury, the Apollo Moon landings, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station and Artemis.Open the full entry center status as the Launch Operations Center, and on November 29, 1963, it was renamed the John F. Kennedy Space Center in honor of John F. Kennedy. The first uncrewed test flight of the Saturn V rocket came on the Apollo 4 mission on November 9, 1967.⁠[7]

In 1968 the state constitution was completely revised, consolidating many boards and commissions into departments. Florida has had six constitutions and is governed by the Constitution of 1968 as subsequently amended.⁠[2][4]

In 1965 Governor Burns announced Walt Disney’s plans for an Orlando theme park; Walt Disney World opened in Orlando in 1971, and EPCOT opened in 1982.⁠[2]

In 1992 Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida, devastating Homestead; it was then the costliest disaster in U.S. history.⁠[2]

Under the apportionment based on the 2020 census, Florida has 28 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, one more than in 2010, with an average of 770,376 persons per seat. The state has 30 electoral votes in the 2024 and 2028 presidential elections.⁠[8][9]

As of November 2026 the governor is Ron DeSantis, the 46th governor of Florida, in office since January 8, 2019; the lieutenant governor is Jay Collins.⁠[10]

The legislature, the Florida Legislature, consists of a Senate of 40 members elected to four-year terms and a House of Representatives of 120 members elected to two-year terms. Sessions begin on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March in odd-numbered years and on the second Tuesday after the first Monday in January in even-numbered years, and each lasts 60 days. The present Capitol Complex was completed in 1977. The state constitution is reviewed every 20 years.⁠[4]

The Florida Supreme Court is composed of seven justices, appointed by the governor from a list of qualified nominees submitted by a judicial nominating commission; justices must stand for retention or rejection by the voters in a general election every six years, and the chief justice is chosen from among the justices by a majority of the court.⁠[11]

In the Census Bureau’s State Area Measurements, Florida has a total area of 65,758 square miles (170,312 square kilometers), of which 53,625 square miles (138,887 square kilometers) is land and 12,133 square miles (31,424 square kilometers) is water, including 5,027 square miles of inland water, 1,349 square miles of coastal water and 5,757 square miles of territorial water.⁠[12]

The state has 67 counties. Its highest natural point, near Lakewood in Walton County, is 345 feet above sea level.⁠[13][4]

By area, Jacksonville is the largest city in the contiguous United States.⁠[14]

The Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 estimate puts Florida’s population at 23,462,518 on July 1, 2025, up 8.9% from the April 1, 2020, estimates base of 21,538,207. Population density in 2020 was 401.4 persons per square mile, with a land area of 53,652.17 square miles.⁠[15]

On July 1, 2025, Florida was the third most populous state. Between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025, its population grew by 196,680, the second-largest numeric gain among the states, and its net international migration from July 2024 to June 2025, 178,674, was the highest of any state. Net domestic migration fell from 310,892 in 2022 and 183,646 in 2023 to 22,517 in 2025, eighth in the nation.⁠[16]

Of the July 1, 2025, estimated population, 4.9% were under 5, 19.3% under 18 and 21.8% aged 65 and over, and 50.8% were female. By race, 76.4% were White alone, 16.9% Black alone, 3.4% Asian alone, 0.6% American Indian and Alaska Native alone and 2.5% of two or more races; 28.7% were Hispanic or Latino and 50.6% White alone, not Hispanic or Latino.⁠[15]

In 2020–2024, 21.9% of residents were foreign-born and 30.6% of those aged 5 and over spoke a language other than English at home; among those aged 25 and over, 89.9% were high school graduates and 34.1% held a bachelor’s degree or higher. Median household income was $74,568 and per capita income $42,609 (in 2024 dollars), and 12.0% of persons lived in poverty.⁠[15]

Florida’s population in 1970 was 6,789,443.⁠[2]

Florida’s 2024 nominal GDP was $1,705,565 million in preliminary U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data, and its real GDP grew 3.6%, ranking 8th among the states.⁠[17]

Massive defense investment during World War II was followed by rapid population growth, and in the late 20th and early 21st centuries Florida led the nation in new job growth.⁠[5]

In 1851 the legislature created the West Florida Seminary and the East Florida Seminary, which later became Florida State University and the University of Florida. Florida A&M began in 1887 as the State Normal College for Colored Students, and in 1948 the Florida State College for Women became the coeducational Florida State University. The University of South Florida was founded in 1956, and Florida International University opened in 1965, the year the Board of Regents took control of the state universities.⁠[2]

Florida’s nickname is “The Sunshine State.”⁠[13]

Florida adopted its first state seal in 1847, and the current seal became official in 1985. The motto “In God We Trust” was added to the seal in 1868 and designated in state statute in 2006; the original motto was “In God is our Trust.”⁠[2][13]

The state flower is the orange blossom (designated 1909), the state tree the sabal palm (1953) and the state bird the mockingbird; the state reptile is the American alligator (1987), the state butterfly the Zebra Longwing (1996), the state gem the moonstone (1970), the state shell the horse conch (1969) and the state tortoise the gopher tortoise (2008); the state marine mammal is the manatee and the state beverage orange juice. The state song is “The Swanee River” by Stephen C. Foster, and the state anthem is “Florida, Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky.”⁠[13][4]

The current state flag has a white field with the state seal at its center, the seal’s diameter being half the hoist, and red bars extending from each corner to the outer rim of the seal, forming a St. Andrew’s cross. From 1868 to 1900 the flag was a white field with the seal at its center; in the late 1890s Governor Francis P. Fleming proposed adding a red cross so that the flag would not look like a white flag of truce or surrender when hanging limp. The current design, based on an 1899 joint resolution of the legislature, was adopted in 1900 when voters ratified a constitutional amendment; in the 1968 revision of the constitution the flag’s dimensions were moved into statutory language.⁠[18]

State of Florida: Official website: https://www.myflorida.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[19]

Executive Office of Governor Ron DeSantis: Official website: https://www.flgov.com/eog (opens in a new window).⁠[10]

The Florida Senate: Official website: https://www.flsenate.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[4]

Florida Department of State: Official website: https://dos.fl.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]