Retirement to Florida

Until the mid-20th century, Florida was the least-populous state in the southern United States. In 1900, its population was only 528,542. Economic prosperity in the 1920s stimulated tourism to Florida and related development of hotels and resort communities. Combined with its sudden elevation in profile was the Florida land boom of the 1920s, which brought a brief period of intense land development. In 1925, the Seaboard Air Line broke the FEC's southeast Florida monopoly and extended its freight and passenger service to West Palm Beach; two years later it extended passenger service to Miami. Devastating hurricanes in 1926 and 1928, followed by the Great Depression, brought that period to a halt. Florida's economy did not fully recover until the military buildup for World War II. In 1939, Florida was described as "still very largely an empty State." Subsequently, the growing availability of air conditioning, the climate, and a low cost of living made the state a haven. Migration from the Rust Belt and the Northeast sharply increased Florida's population after 1945. ==Post-1950 developments==

In the 1950s and 1960s, migration into Florida was localized, with retirees from places like New York City moving to Miami Beach in large numbers. The average annual growth for the state between 1960 and 1989 remained above 3%, about double the national average growth. Retirement communities, which are often built in warm climates, became common in Florida, as well as other warmer states such as Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, and Texas. In 2011, The Villages, Florida became the largest of these communities, approaching a population of 80,000 residents by 2020. Some of the characteristics of these communities typically are: the community must be age-restricted or age-qualified, residents must be partially or fully retired, and the community offers shared services or amenities. By 2011, niche retirement communities or "niche senior communities' - known as "affinity retirement communities" by industry professionals - had become "one of the biggest trends in retirement living." These communities attract those over 55 who want to be in communities of like-minded individuals from the same ethnic background. In Florida, there are niche retirement communities for car buffs and RVers, such as Lake Weir Preserve in Marion County; for first-generation Indian immigrants (55-and-over) in Tavares, in the Greater Orlando area, Lake County, Florida. The Villages, in Sumter County, Florida, is Florida's most well-known and fastest-growing retirement community development. It has been described as the state's "biggest example of a culturally and ethnically homogeneous retirement community", with a 98.4% white population. The Villages, a gated community reporting low crime rates, offers "free golf for life" on their executive golf courses. A number of retirement communities in Florida have been structured to have an affiliation with particular organizations. Colleges have created options for retired alumni who enjoy campus life, for example, at the University of Florida in Gainesville and Eckerd College in St. Petersburg's College Harbor Retirement Community, with its Academy of Senior Professionals. was established in 1963 as a retirement community for postal letter carriers, designed and operated by a branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), the union representing United States Postal Service city letter carriers. Maranatha Village, established in 1973, is a Baptist retirement community north of Sebring, Florida, affiliated with the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. As of 2011, Florida contains the highest percentage of people over 65 (17.3%) in the U.S. There were 186,102 military retirees living in the state in 2008. About two-thirds of the population was born in another state, the second-highest in the U.S. In 2021, Florida was the most popular state in the country for retirees to move to, with over 78,000 seniors moving from other states to Florida, which was "more than three times as many as Arizona, which ranked second on the list". ==See also==