One of the bluest political regions of Florida grew larger in the last year.
New U.S. Census Bureau information released this week revealed that the Orlando/Kissimmee/Sanford region is the fastest growing metro area in Florida. The region grew by 37,690 people between July 2024 and July 2025. That was the 10th largest numeric growth by a metro area in the nation.
Texas had four of the top nine metro areas in growth by population, with Houston first, Dallas second, Austin sixth and San Antonio ninth.
The population increase was noted by the National Democratic Redistricting Committee on Thursday, which is actively opposing the proposed congressional redistricting effort led by Gov. Ron DeSantis scheduled to take place next month. The organization says that the Orlando metro area has “already been gerrymandered to prevent the congressional districts from becoming more competitive.”
“Further cracking these seats and combining them with slower-growing regions like that of South Central Florida, or towards the Villages in Sumter County, will pose a significant challenge in the state legislature,” the group says in a memo.
The main U.S. House Representative for Orlando is Democrat Maxwell Frost.
When it comes to the largest metro area increases in the country by percentage (and not by pure numbers), Ocala was the highest in the country, with 3.4% growth, going from 427,995 to 442,660.
The Lakeland-Winter Haven metro area, which has for years been among the top metro areas in growth, was the fourth highest metro area in percentage population growth, with a 2.7% increase, from 851,434 to 874,790.
However, two of the state’s biggest counties — Miami-Dade and Pinellas — lost more population last year.
Only Los Angeles County saw more of a numeric decline in population than Pinellas, which lost 11,834 people from July 2024 to July 2025. The third biggest loss in the country was Miami-Dade, at 10,115 people. That was dramatic, as Miami-Dade saw the second-largest population increase of any county in the U.S. in 2024.
However, Miami-Dade’s population of more than 2.8 million (2,809,029 officially) still makes it the 7th largest county in the U.S.
The shifts in the country’s biggest counties were largely due to lower levels of net international migration, the Census Bureau reports.
Florida also saw two of the four largest population reductions by percentage in the country with Taylor County being first with a 2.2% reduction, and Monroe County in the Keys fourth with a 2.0% reduction.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
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