Florida Overview: The Statewide Guides

Tallahassee is the capital of Florida, and Florida was admitted as the 27th state of the United States on March 3, 1845, according to the Florida Department of State (Florida quick facts).

Florida statehood came 24 years after the United States acquired Florida from Spain as a U.S. territory in 1821. The Department of State also dates the first permanent European settlement in Florida to 1565, when Spain founded St. Augustine (Department of State). The Florida Department of State and the FDOT Aviation Office, both cited on this page, list their offices in Tallahassee.

Florida had an estimated 23,379,261 residents on April 1, 2025 and is divided into 67 counties, according to the Office of Economic and Demographic Research of the Florida Legislature and the Department of State (EDR estimate, Department of State).

The Department of State quick facts list a 2020 census count of 21,538,187 and name Miami-Dade County the most populous Florida county in 2020, with 2,701,767 people. Among the 67 counties, Palm Beach is the largest at 2,578 square miles and Union the smallest at 245 square miles, and Florida covers 65,758 square miles in total, 22nd among the states (Florida quick facts).

A practical note on Florida numbers: the Department of State page still shows population lines only through the 2020 census and a 2019 estimate, and its listed sources date to 2012 and 2014. The EDR estimate for April 1, 2025, sourced to the Florida Demographic Estimating Conference (December 2025) and the University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research, is the newer statewide count, and EDR projects 28,250,130 Floridians by 2050 (EDR projections).

Florida's form of government is a Governor and Cabinet consisting of the Attorney General, Chief Financial Officer and Commissioner of Agriculture, according to the Department of State (Department of State).

The Florida Legislature has 120 house districts and 40 senate districts. State agencies are listed on MyFlorida.com, the official page for Sunshine State government, which carries a directory to find the website of each Florida state agency and the State of Florida Directory, an online telephone and email directory for state government agencies and employees (MyFlorida.com). The same quick facts list 28 congressional districts for Florida. The Florida Department of State, which keeps the official state facts and symbols, is in the R.A. Gray Building at 500 South Bronough Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32399, phone 850.245.6500 (Department of State). Under Florida law, e-mail addresses are public records, a notice the Department of State and MyFlorida.com both print on their pages.

The official Florida state symbols include the mockingbird as state bird, the orange blossom as state flower, the sabal palm as state tree and the Florida panther as state animal, per the Florida Department of State (Florida State Symbols).

The Department of State list continues with the American alligator as Florida state reptile, the manatee as state marine mammal, the zebra longwing as state butterfly, orange juice as state beverage, moonstone as state gem, agatized coral as state stone and Myakka fine sand as state soil. The Florida state anthem is Florida (Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky); the list also names a state play, Cross and Sword, and a state horse, the Florida Cracker Horse (Department of State).

Florida's aviation system includes over 125 public-use airports, 21 of them offering commercial service from the Panhandle to the Florida Keys, and Florida is the only state with four large hub commercial airports, according to the FDOT Aviation Office (FDOT airports, FDOT Aviation Office).

The Florida system also includes 11 military aviation facilities. In 2021, the data year of the FDOT aviation economic impact study, Florida attracted almost 122 million visitors, and 36 percent of them arrived through a Florida airport (FDOT). FDOT lists $41.4 billion in total economic impact output for Orlando International Airport (MCO) and $35.3 billion for Miami International Airport (MIA), and notes that MCO began as McCoy Air Force Base and that the first paid commercial flight in the world flew from St. Petersburg to Tampa (FDOT Aviation Office). The FDOT Aviation Office is at 605 Suwannee St., Tallahassee, telephone 850-414-4500. The Florida major airports overview covers the commercial service airports, passenger counts, operators and economic impact.

Florida cruises sail from several of the state's 16 publicly owned seaports, led by Port Canaveral, which FDOT calls the busiest cruise port in the world, and PortMiami, known as the Cruise Capital of the World (FDOT Seaport Office).

FDOT places Port Canaveral about 50 miles southeast of Orlando in Brevard County, next to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and describes Port Everglades as an important Florida gateway for international trade and cruise vacations. On the northeast Florida coast, JAXPORT, the Jacksonville Port Authority, owns three cargo facilities and a cruise terminal (FDOT Seaport Office). The Florida cruise port system guide covers which Florida ports run cruise ships, how busy each is, what parking costs and how passengers get there from the airport.

The Florida overview section holds two statewide guides, the Florida major airports overview and the Florida cruise port system guide; the other basic Florida questions are answered on this page from the Department of State, EDR and FDOT.