Florida •Economy •Fun •Beaches •Shopping •Population •Language •What to see in Florida

• Florida is a state located in the Southeastern Unites States, bordering Alabama and Georgia. Florida was admitted as the 27th U.S. state in 1845, after a three hundred year period of European rule. • With an area of 170,305 km2, it is ranked 22nd in size among the 50 U.S. states. Florida has the longest coastline in the contiguous United States, approximately 2,170 km.

Florida is nicknamed the "Sunshine State" because of its generally warm Climate, with a true tropical climate in the southern portion. The state population was 18,537,969 in 2009. Tallahassee is the state capital, Jacksonville is the largest city.

• Florida has the 4th highest state population in the United States. • About two-thirds of the population was born in another state, the second highest in the country. • The state had the third largest illegal immigrant population in the country in 2009. In 2010, illegal immigrants constituted an estimated 5.7% of the population. This was the sixth highest percentage of any state in the country.

• Languages As of 2000, 76.91% of Florida residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a first language, while 16.46% spoke Spanish, and French Creole (predominantly

• Economy • Launch of Space Shuttle Columbia from the Kennedy Space Center. • The Port of Miami is the world's largest cruise ship port, and is the headquarters of many of the world's largest cruise companies. • The Brickell Financial District in Miami contains the largest concentration of international banks in the U.S. • South Florida's climate is ideal for growing sugarcane. • The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Florida in 2007 was $734.5 billion. Its GDP is the fourth largest economy in the United States.

Tourism

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Tourism makes up the largest sector of the state economy. Warm weather and hundreds of miles of beaches attract about 60 million visitors to the state every year.