Florida citrus capital was top destination for US movers last year

ORLANDO, Fla. — More people moved to a county rich in citrus groves, located between two of Florida’s most populous urban areas, than to any other county in the U.S. last year, according to estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

More than 29,300 people moved last year to the county between Tampa and Orlando, two metro areas where housing has become increasingly expensive and the county is considered a cheaper alternative. In the short term, Polk County has gained fewer orange groves along Interstate 4 and more subdivisions for local service workers, as well as distribution warehouses for on-demand deliveries for residents of both metropolitan areas.

Nearly all of Polk County’s growth — 88% — was people moving from another part of the U.S. rather than abroad, according to 2023 population estimates.

“The growth of the subsectors is on the rise and it happens in such a way that you don’t always notice it. But when you’re stuck in traffic, you’re really paying attention that it’s going to continue,” Matt Joyner, a seventh-generation Polk County resident, said of the influx of new residents.

Only four other counties: Harris and Montgomery counties in metro Houston; Collin County in metro Dallas; and Maricopa County, home to Phoenix – grew by more people, thanks to their higher rates of natural increase, or births exceeding deaths.

Harris County, home to Houston, grew by nearly 54,000 people, the most of any county last year, with about two-thirds of the growth coming from births exceeding deaths. That natural increase of nearly 34,700 people was the highest in the country.

Despite the influx of thousands of new residents from abroad and the number of births exceeding the number of deaths, some of the most populous U.S. counties also lost most of their residents as a result of moving to other counties last year, a trend that began early of the decade accelerated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The leader was Los Angeles County, with 56,000 fewer inhabitants. Three counties representing the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx followed, with population losses of 28,300 people, 26,300 people, and 25,300 people, respectively. However, the outflow from these large provinces was considerably smaller last year than in 2022.

New York City officials, however, believe the Census Bureau estimates do not take into account the influx of tens of thousands of asylum seekers last year. The city rented out entire hotels to house migrants and also installed cots in schools and temporarily housed people in tents, a cruise ship terminal and a former police academy building.

As many as 50,000 people were overlooked in the city’s shelters, according to city officials, who plan to challenge the estimates with the Census Bureau.

“We wanted to draw attention to it,” said Casey Berkovitz, press secretary for the New York Department of City Planning. “Once you take this underestimation into account… the year marked a return to pre-pandemic levels.”

In the most popular destinations for immigrants — South Florida counties and counties home to Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Jose — international migration grew by double digits year over year.

The estimates do not distinguish between legal immigration and illegal immigration, so it is impossible to know whether some of the growth comes from unlawful border crossings. Arrests for illegal crossings reached a record high in December but fell by half in January.

Miami-Dade County saw nearly 54,500 new non-U.S. residents, the highest number in the nation last year and an increase of nearly 40% from the previous year. International migration offset the departure of more than 47,000 residents who left Miami-Dade County for other U.S. counties.

Among metropolitan areas, which combine counties with social and economic connections, the Dallas metro area saw the greatest growth last year — adding more than 152,000 residents — surpassing 8 million residents for the first time. That growth was followed by metro Houston, with almost 140,000 additional residents, and metro Atlanta, with an increase of more than 68,000 residents.

Metro Atlanta moved up two spots from last year and is now the sixth most populous metro area, with 6.3 million residents. It is only surpassed by metro New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Houston.

With more than 62,000 acres of citrus groves, Polk County is one of the leading orange producers in Florida. The state’s citrus industry has been caught in recent years between a fast-spreading bacteria that has attacked the health of trees across the state and relentless growth that has spilled over as metropolitan areas have expanded.

Despite this, Polk County has retained its citrus heritage. Most of the growth is concentrated in the northeastern part of the county, just a few miles from Walt Disney World in metro Orlando. But many of the citrus growers there who sold their land to residential builders have just moved to the southern part of the county, where citrus groves still abound, said Joyner, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, a grower advocacy group.

New residents of Polk County have a picturesque sight to see when they drive through the county’s groves now: white flowers on citrus trees and a sweet scent in the air.

“Everywhere you go now the bushes are snow white and the smell is sweet,” Joyner said. “It reminds you of the past.”

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Follow Mike Schneider on X, formerly known as Twitter: @MikeSchneiderAP.