South Florida is largely confined to a strip of land between the Atlantic Ocean and Everglades, and Miami's urbanized area is about 100 miles (160 km) long (north to south) and at most 20 miles (32 km) east to west; in some areas, its east to west width is only 5 miles (8 km). The Miami metropolitan statistical area is the second-longest urbanized area in the United States behind the New York metropolitan area.[5] It was the eighth-most densely populated urbanized area in the United States as of the 2000 census.[6]
As of the 2020 census, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale urbanized area had a land area of 1,244.18 square miles (3,222.4 km2), with a population of 6,077,522, for a population density of 4,884.78 inhabitants per square mile (1,886.02/km2). The Miami metropolitan area also had one urban cluster (UC) as of the 2020 census, which is not part of the Miami urbanized area. The Belle Glade urban cluster had a population of 23,009, area of 7.21 square miles (18.7 km2) and population density of 3,191.41 inhabitants per square mile (1,232.21/km2).[7] Miami, the largest city in the metropolitan area, had population density of over 10,000/sq mi (more than 3,800/km2) in 2000.[8][9] The Miami Urbanized Area was the fourth-largest urbanized area in the United States in the 2010 census.
As of 2023[update], the Miami metropolitan area is defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget as the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA),[1] with a 2020 population of 6,138,333. The MSA is made up of three "metropolitan divisions" :
Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall Metropolitan Division, coterminous with Miami Dade County (2020 population 2,701,767).
Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Sunrise Metropolitan Division, coterminous with Broward County (2020 population 1,944,375).
West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach Metropolitan Division, coterminous with Palm Beach County (2020 population 1,492,191).[11]
The MSA is the second most populous metropolitan area in the Southeastern United States and has an area of 6,137 sq. mi (15,890 km2).
The original MSA for Miami, as defined by the OMB, included only Dade County (now Miami-Dade County). By 1995, the Miami-Hialeah and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood-Pompano Beach MSAs had been merged into the Miami-Fort Lauderdale Consolidated MSA, consisting of the Miami Primary MSA (Dade County) and the Fort Lauderdale Primary MSA (Broward County).[12] In 2003, the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach MSA was merged with the consolidated MSA to form the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area, consisting of: the Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deefield Beach Metropolitan Division (Broward County), the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall Metropolitan Division (Miami-Dade County), and the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach Metropolitan Division (Palm Beach County).[13]
Miami-Port Saint Lucie-Fort Lauderdale Combined Statistical Area
The Census Bureau also defines a wider commercial region based on commuting patterns, the Miami-Port Saint Lucie-Fort Lauderdale Combined Statistical Area (CSA), with a population of 6,887,655 in 2020.
When the CSA was defined in 2013, it included the Okeechobee μSA, but not the Key West μSA. In 2018 the Okeechobee μSA was removed from the CSA and the Key West μSA was added. The Okeechobee μSA was re-added to the CSA in 2023.[15][16][14]
South Florida/Miami metropolitan area has a tropical climate, similar to the climate found in much of the Caribbean. It is the only metropolitan area in the 48 contiguous states that falls under that category. More specifically, it generally has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen climate classification, Am).[19] The South Florida metropolis sees most of its rain in the summer (wet season) and is quite dry in the winter (dry season). The wet season, which is hot and humid, lasts from May to October, when daily thunderstorms and passing weak tropical lows bring downpours during the late afternoon. The dry season often starts in late October and runs through late April. During the height of the dry season from February through April, South Florida is often very dry, and often brush fires and water restrictions are an issue. At times cold fronts can make it all the way down to South Florida and provide some modest rainfall in the dry season. The hurricane season largely coincides with the wet season.[20]
In addition to its sea-level elevation, coastal location and position near the Tropic of Cancer and the Caribbean, the area owes its warm, humid climate to the Gulf Stream, which moderates climate year-round. A typical summer day does not see temperatures below 75 °F (24 °C). Temperatures in the high 80s to low 90s (30–35 °C) accompanied by high humidity are often relieved by afternoon thunderstorms or a sea breeze that develops off the Atlantic Ocean, which then allow lower temperatures, although conditions still remain very muggy.
During winter, dry air often dominates as dew points are often very low. Average daily high temperatures across South Florida during the winter are around 74–77 °F (23–25 °C). Although daily highs can sometimes reach 82–85 °F (28–29 °C) even in January and February. Daily low temperatures during the winter are generally around 55–63 °F (13–17 °C). Each winter, cold fronts occasionally make their way down to the northern Bahamas and South Florida. As a result, daytime high temperatures in South Florida may only reach around 65 °F (18 °C) or cooler. When this occurs low temperatures can dip into the 40s during the early morning hours before quickly warming-up toward late morning/early afternoon. It is rare for temperatures to drop below 40 °F (4 °C), however, low temperatures at or around 35 °F (2 °C) have occurred some years. South Florida only experiences these cold spells about twice each winter and they typically only last a day or two before temperatures return to the mid 70s. On average South Florida is frost-free, although there can be a light frost in the inland communities about once every decade.
Hurricane season officially runs from June 1 through November 30, although hurricanes can develop outside that period. The most likely time for South Florida to be hit is during the peak of the Cape Verde season, mid-August through the end of September.[21] Due to its location between two major bodies of water known for tropical activity, South Florida is also statistically the most likely major area to be struck by a hurricane in the world, trailed closely by Nassau, Bahamas, and Havana, Cuba. Many hurricanes have affected the metropolis, including Betsy in 1965, Andrew in 1992, Irene in 1999, Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma in 2005, and Irma in 2017. In addition, a tropical depression in October 2000 passed over the city, causing record rainfall and flooding. Locally, the storm is credited as the No Name Storm of 2000, though the depression went on to become Tropical Storm Leslie upon entering the Atlantic Ocean.
There is a strong divide between the northern and southern parts of the region in terms of dominant language. In 2010, English was the household language of 73.1% of Palm Beach County residents and 63.4% of Broward County residents but only 28.1% of Miami-Dade County residents. In contrast, 63.8% of Miami-Dade County residents spoke Spanish at home.
Religion
Religion in the Miami metropolitan area (2014)[67]
According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, Christianity is the most prevalent religion in the Miami metropolitan area (68%), with 39% professing attendance at a variety of churches that could be considered Protestant and 27% professing Roman Catholic beliefs.[68][69] Judaism is second (9%), followed by Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and a variety of other religions have smaller followings; 21% of the population did not identify with any religion.
The Miami area has one of the largest Jewish communities in the United States. 10.2% of the population identified as Jewish in the 2000 Census.[70] According to a 2011 survey of American Judaism, Palm Beach County had the most Jews of any Florida county both in absolute numbers (205,850) and as a percentage of the overall population (15.8%). Broward County came in second place with 170,700 Jewish residents or 9.8% of the population, and Miami-Dade County came in third with 106,300 or 4.3%.[71]
Housing
Changes in house prices for the area are publicly tracked on a regular basis using the Case–Shiller index; the statistic is published by Standard & Poor's and is also a component of S&P's 10-city composite index of the value of the residential real estate market.
As of 2005, the Miami area had a total of 2.3 million housing units, 13% of which were vacant. Of the total housing units, 52% were in single-unit structures, 45% were in multi-unit structures, and 3% were mobile homes. 25% of the housing units were built since 1990. As of 2019, over 70% of Miami's residents are renters with median rent of $1,355, $180 over the national average.
Households and families: There were 2,338,450 households, The average household size was 2.6 people. Families made up 65% of the households in the Miami area. This figure includes both married-couple families (45%) and other families (20%). Nonfamily households made up 35% of all households in Miami. Most of the nonfamily households were people living alone, but some consisted of people living in households in which no one was related to the householder.
Occupied housing unit characteristics: In 2005, the Miami area had 2.0 million occupied housing units – 1.3 million (66%) owner occupied and 688,000 (34%) renter occupied.
As of 2010, housing costs in the Miami area typically represented 40% of household income, compared to 34% nationwide.[72]
Property tax increase: In March 2009, Miami area lawmakers passed a 5–10% hike in property tax millage rates throughout the metropolitan area to fund the construction of new schools and to fund understaffed schools and educational institutions, resulting in an increase in residents' property tax bills beginning in the 2009 tax year.
Politics
Politically, metropolitan Miami is strongly Democratic, like most large metropolitan regions in the United States. Broward County is the second-most heavily Democratic county in the state,[73][74] behind only Gadsden County, which is much smaller. This contrasts with most of the rest of Florida, whose heavier Southern influence and high population of elderly voters makes it a swing or Republican-leaning state. Miami-Dade County has a relatively high percentage of Republican voters for an urban county, due partially to its Cuban-American population, which leans Republican as a result of its anti-communist views, but Miami-Dade County still remains very Democratic when compared with most of Florida's other counties.[75][76][77] Despite being more suburban and affluent, Palm Beach County is reliably Democratic as well and in the 2020 presidential election voted for Democratic candidate Joe Biden by a higher margin than Miami-Dade County did.
In the 2016 presidential election, 62.3% of voters in the Miami metropolitan area voted Democratic. This was the 6th highest of any metro area in the United States.[78] However, in recent years the area has shifted hard to the Republicans, with former president Donald Trump losing the metro area by 16 points in 2020 compared to losing it by 30 in 2016 (Fueled especially by Miami Dade County shifting 22 points to the right between 2016 and 2020), and Governor Ron DeSantis winning the metro area outright in the 2022 gubernatorial election, winning both Miami Dade and Palm Beach Counties (With the former being won by double digits) while losing Broward only by less than 16 points.
Government
The metropolitan area is governed by 3 counties. In total there are 107 municipalities or incorporated places in the metropolis. Each one of the municipalities has its own city, town or village government, although there is no distinction between the 3 names. Much of the land in the metropolis is unincorporated, which means it does not belong to any municipality, and therefore is governed directly by the county it is located in.
Congressional districts
The Miami metropolitan area contains all or part of nine Congressional districts: the 18th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th districts.[79] As of 2017[update] (the 113th Congress), the Cook Partisan Voting Index listed four as being Republican-leaning: the 18th, 25th, 26th, and 27th, with the 25th being the most Republican-leaning at R+5, and five as being Democratic-leaning: the 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, with the 24th being the most Democratic-leaning at D+34, making it the ninth-most Democratic-leaning district in the nation.[80]
Among those employed in the Miami metropolitan area, 32% were management, professional, and related occupations, 30% were sales and office occupations, 18% were service occupations, 11% were construction, extraction, maintenance and repair occupations, and 9% were production, transportation, and material moving occupations. 81% of the people employed were Private wage and salary workers; 12% were Federal, state, or local government workers; and 7% were self-employed.
The median income of households in the Miami area was $43,091. 78% of the households received earnings and 13% received retirement income other than Social Security. 30% of the households received Social Security. The average income from Social Security was $13[citation needed]. These income sources are not mutually exclusive; that is, some households received income from more than one source.
In 2005, for the employed population 16 years and older, the leading industries in the Miami area were educational services, health care, and social assistance, which accounted for 18%, and Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services, which accounted for 13% of the population. 79% of Miami area workers drove to work alone in 2005, 10% carpooled, 4% took public transportation, and 4% used other means. The remaining 3% worked at home. Among those who commuted to work, it took them on average 28.5 minutes to get to work.
It is possible to differentiate the Miami accent from a variety of interlanguages spoken by second-language speakers. The Miami accent does not generally display addition of /ɛ/ before initial consonant clusters with /s/, speakers do not confuse of /dʒ/ with /j/, (e.g., Yale with jail), and /r/ and /rr/ are pronounced as alveolar approximant [ɹ] instead of alveolar tap [ɾ] or alveolar trill [r] in Spanish.[87][88][89][90]
Greater Miami is served by several English-language and two major Spanish-language daily newspapers. The Miami Herald, headquartered in Doral, is Miami's primary newspaper with over a million readers. It also has news bureaus in Broward County, Monroe County, and Nassau, Bahamas. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel circulates primarily in Broward and southern Palm Beach counties and also has a news bureau in Havana, Cuba. The Palm Beach Post serves mainly Palm Beach County, especially the central and northern regions, and the Treasure Coast. The Boca Raton News publishes five days a week and circulates in southern Palm Beach County.[91]El Nuevo Herald, a subsidiary of the Miami Herald, and Diario Las Americas,[92] are Spanish-language daily papers that circulate mainly in Miami-Dade County. La Palma and El Sentinel are weekly Spanish newspapers published by the Palm Beach Post and Sun-Sentinel, respectively, and circulate in the same areas as their English-language counterparts.
Greater Miami is split into two separate television/radio markets: The Miami-Fort Lauderdale market serves Miami-Dade, Broward and the Florida Keys. The West Palm Beach market serves Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast region.
In addition to the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market, West Palm Beach has its own. It is the 49th largest radio market and the 38th-largest television market in the U.S. Television stations serving the West Palm Beach area include WPTV (NBC), WPEC (CBS), WPBF (ABC), WFLX (FOX), WTVX (The CW), WXEL (PBS), WTCN (MyNetworkTV), and WPXP (ION). The West Palm Beach market shares use of WSCV and WLTV for Telemundo and Univision respectively. Also, both markets cross over and tend to be available interchangeably between both areas. In 2015, WPBT and WXEL merged their operations, to form South Florida PBS, although both stations have maintained separate programming schedules and social media platforms, but share the same subchannel lineup.
Education
In Florida, each county is also a school district. Each district is headed by an elected school board. A professional superintendent manages the day-to-day operations of each district, who is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the school board.
The University of Miami is one of the top-ranked private research institutions in the United States, and has the most selective admissions standards of Florida's 171 colleges and universities.[93]
In 2005, 82% of people 25 years and over had at least graduated from high school and 28% had a bachelor's degree or higher. Among people 16 to 19 years old, 7% were dropouts; they were not enrolled in school and had not graduated from high school. The total school enrollment in the Miami metro area was 1.4 million in 2005. Nursery school and kindergarten enrollment was 170,000 and elementary or high school enrollment was 879,000. College or graduate school enrollment was 354,000.
Express lanes on I-95 start in Miami-Dade County and continue into Broward County. With an increased presence of traffic in South Florida, express lanes have been implemented in southern Palm Beach County.
The metropolitan area is served by three major commercial airports. These airports combine to make the fourth largest domestic origin and destination market in the United States, after New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.[94]
The metropolis also has four seaports, the largest and most important being the Port of Miami. Others in the area include Port Everglades, Port of Palm Beach and the Miami River Port. On August 21, 2012, PortMiami and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed the Partnership Agreement (PPA) construction agreement that will allow the Deep Dredge project to go out for bid. The Deep Dredge will deepen the Port's existing channels to minus 50/52 feet to prepare for the Panama Canal expansion, now scheduled for completion in early 2015. PortMiami's deeper channel will provide ships with an economically efficient, reliable and safe navigational route into the Port. PortMiami will be the only U.S. Port south of Norfolk, Virginia to be at the minus 50 foot depth in sync with the opening of the expanded Canal. Deep Dredge is expected to create more than 30,000 direct, indirect, and induced jobs in Florida and allow the Port to meet its goal to double its cargo traffic over the next decade.
^Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the highest and lowest temperature readings during an entire month or year) calculated based on data at said location from 1991 to 2020.
^Official records for Miami were kept at the Lemon City from September 1895 to November 1900, the Miami COOP from December 1900 to May 1911, the Weather Bureau Office from June 1911 to February 1937, at various locations in and around the city from March 1937 to July 1942, and at Miami Int'l since August 1942. For more information, see ThreadEx.
^Language spoken at home among residents at least five years old; only languages (or language groups) which at least 2% of residents have spoken at any time since 1980 are mentioned
^Lamme, Ary J.; Oldakowski, Raymond K. (November 2007). "Spinning a New Geography of Vernacular Regional Identity: Florida in the Twenty-First Century". Southeastern Geographer. 47 (2): 330–331. doi:10.1353/sgo.2007.0029. S2CID129577530.
^Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the highest and lowest temperature readings during an entire month or year) calculated based on data at said location from 1981 to 2010.
^"Census Counts: 1830-2020". Florida County Population Census Counts: 1830 to 2020. Office of Economic and Demographic Research, The Florida Legislature. 2023. Archived from the original on April 4, 2022. Retrieved June 8, 2023.