Florida Topics: The Statewide Guide Library

The Florida topics library is the statewide shelf of Digital Towns: 156 guides in 20 sections, from Florida history and state government to hurricanes, state parks, schools and the economy.

The largest Florida sections are history (27 guides, from the Calusa and Timucua peoples and the 1565 St. Augustine founding to the Mariel boatlift), government (21 guides, including the Florida Cabinet, the Legislature, special districts, evacuation and flood maps), environment (20 guides, from the Everglades and the Indian River Lagoon to sea turtle nesting and the water management districts) and industries (16 guides, from aerospace on the Space Coast to citrus and commercial fishing).

Smaller Florida sections cover economy (10 guides), schools (10), recreation (11), geography (8), places and landmarks (8), events (5), sports (5), and two guides each on agriculture, arts, demographics, real estate, transportation and the Florida overview of airports and cruise ports. Food, healthcare and military each have one statewide guide for Floridians so far.

Town and county pages sit beside this library. The Florida town guides answer local questions for places such as Sebastian, Vero Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee and Jacksonville, while the statewide topic guides answer the questions that are the same in every Florida county.

Florida's capital is Tallahassee, the state has 67 counties, and it was admitted as the 27th state on March 3, 1845, according to the Florida Department of State (Florida Department of State).

The Florida Department of State Quick Facts put total area at 65,758 square miles, of which 12,133 square miles are water, and measure the state at 447 miles from the St. Marys River to Key West and 361 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Perdido River (Quick Facts). Florida has 1,350 statute miles of coastline and 663 miles of beaches. The St. Johns is the longest river at 273 miles, Lake Okeechobee the largest lake at 700 square miles, and the state counts about 7,700 lakes larger than 10 acres and 33 first-magnitude springs.

Two tax facts shape life in Florida: the Department of State lists a 6 percent state sales tax and no state income tax (Florida Department of State). The first permanent European settlement was St. Augustine, founded by Spain in 1565, and Florida was acquired from Spain as a U.S. territory in 1821.

The Florida geography guides (the Panhandle, the central ridge, the Keys, the Everglades, peninsula geology, watersheds, climate zones and coastal geography) and the Florida history guides on the St. Augustine founding, the territorial period and statehood in 1845 go deeper on each of these facts.

Floridians numbered 22,416,077 in the U.S. Census Bureau's ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate, with a median age of 42.6 years (Census Bureau, DP05).

In the same survey, 21.3 percent of Floridians were 65 or older (DP05). Median household income in Florida was $74,568 in 2024 inflation-adjusted dollars (Census Bureau, DP03), and the median value of an owner-occupied Florida home was $359,000 (Census Bureau, DP04).

The Florida Department of State Quick Facts page has not caught up: it still shows the 2020 decennial count of 21,538,187 and a 2019 estimate of 21,477,737 as its current population figures (Quick Facts). The same page lists Miami-Dade County as the most populous county in 2020, with 2,701,767 residents. For a current Florida number, the Census Bureau's ACS and population estimates are the sources to use.

The Florida demographics guides on population by the numbers and on the aging population and retirees, and the economy guides on population growth projections and snowbirds, carry the detail behind these statewide figures, and the Tallahassee, Jacksonville and Sebastian town profiles show the same Census measures for single cities.

Florida is run by a Governor and a Cabinet of the Attorney General, the Chief Financial Officer and the Commissioner of Agriculture, with a Legislature of 120 House districts and 40 Senate districts meeting in Tallahassee (Florida Department of State).

Florida also sends members from 28 congressional districts to Washington, according to the Department of State (Quick Facts). The next Florida Legislature regular session convenes on March 2, 2027, and April 30, 2027 is its 60th and last scheduled day under Article III of the State Constitution, according to the Florida Senate (Florida Senate). Bills for that session must be filed by noon on the day it convenes.

Local government in Florida follows county lines closely. The Florida Department of Education says each geographical county is a school district, so the 67 counties also mean 67 county school districts (Florida Department of Education). Water is managed regionally: the Florida Department of Environmental Protection supervises five water management districts, Northwest Florida, Suwannee River, St. Johns River, Southwest Florida and South Florida (Florida DEP).

The Florida government guides cover the state government structure, the Florida Cabinet, the constitution, the legislative process, the judicial system, county government, municipal government types, special districts, state attorneys, elections and veterans affairs, and the Florida schools guides cover the public school districts, the state university system and the college system.

Floridians face an Atlantic hurricane season that runs from June 1 to November 30 and peaks on September 10, according to the National Hurricane Center (National Hurricane Center).

Based on the 1991 to 2020 climate period, an average Atlantic season brings 14 named storms, 7 hurricanes and 3 major hurricanes, and most activity falls between mid-August and mid-October (NHC). Those averages cover the whole basin, the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf, so they count storms that never reach the Panhandle, the peninsula or Key West.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management's evacuation zone map lets a resident type in an address and see the colored evacuation zone, and the Division notes that these evacuation zones are flood zones (Florida Division of Emergency Management). Typically Zone A is the most vulnerable and evacuates first, and Zone E evacuates last. Not every zone is ordered out in every storm, and the Division says a home outside an evacuation zone may shelter in place if it can withstand strong winds and heavy rain.

Florida storm supplies no longer wait for a tax holiday. The Florida Department of Revenue says that, effective August 1, 2025, items once exempt only during past sales tax holidays are always exempt, including portable generators of 10,000 running watts or less, gas cans of 5 gallons or less, waterproof tarps of 1,000 square feet or less, AA, AAA, C, D, 6-volt and 9-volt batteries, smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms (Florida Department of Revenue).

The Florida government guides on the hurricane season outlook, the NOAA forecast cone, storm surge, hurricane evacuation, the evacuation route map, the flood zone map, hurricane shutter permits, FEMA disaster aid and the post-hurricane checklist cover each step in more detail for Floridians.

Florida State Parks, part of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, counts 175 state parks, trails and historic sites, and that system is the starting point for the recreation section (Florida State Parks).

The Florida recreation guides cover the system run by Florida State Parks, camping, paddling trails, rail trails, saltwater fishing, surfing and shelling on the east coast, diving and snorkeling, birding, hunting and equestrian trails. The Florida places and landmarks guides cover the national parks and forests, the state preserve system, lighthouses, historic forts, historic cemeteries, shipwrecks and the Fellsmere Grade conservation corridor.

The Florida environment section starts with water, because the five water management districts named by the Florida DEP administer water resources at the regional level, from the Northwest Florida district to the South Florida district (Florida DEP). Its guides cover the Everglades ecosystem and restoration, the springs network, the Indian River Lagoon, the coral reef tract in the Keys, mangrove coasts, red tide history, manatee and Florida panther recovery, sea turtle nesting, beach renourishment, sea level rise and the Florida Wildlife Corridor.

Most statewide questions Floridians ask map to a single topic guide, and the table below lists the common ones with the key fact and the guide that answers each.