{"id":208076,"date":"2026-03-27T09:29:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T09:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/208076\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T09:29:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T09:29:21","slug":"this-central-florida-city-just-had-the-biggest-population-boom-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/208076\/","title":{"rendered":"This Central Florida city just had the biggest population boom in America"},"content":{"rendered":"

OCALA, Fla. \u2013 On Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau released a new report<\/a> showing where people are moving \u2014 and one Central Florida city had the biggest boom nationwide.<\/p>\n

The report includes migration data between July 1, 2024, through July 1, 2025, examining which areas of the country saw the largest volumes of comers and goers.<\/p>\n

[BELOW: These are the top-ranked employers in Florida for 2025]<\/p>\n

While Florida has overall been a hotspot for movers in recent years<\/a>, the report had some troubling results for the following counties:<\/p>\n

Pinellas County: Ranked No. 2 nationally for numeric population decline (-11,384 people)<\/p>\n

Miami-Dade County: Ranked No. 3 nationally for numeric population decline (-10,115 people)<\/p>\n

Taylor County: Ranked No. 1 nationally for percent population decline (-2.2%)<\/p>\n

Monroe County: Ranked No. 4 nationally for percent population decline (-2.0%)<\/p>\n

But when it came to Central Florida, there were quite a few areas that saw a huge amount of growth instead.<\/p>\n

For example, the Orlando metro area saw a nearly 40,000 gain in residents during this time, putting it No. 10 nationwide for numeric growth.<\/p>\n

[BELOW: Why is Gen Z flocking to The Villages?]<\/p>\n

And when it came to percentages, Ocala topped the entire country, with roughly 3.4% growth. The Lakeland metro area dipped just a bit under at No. 4, with 2.7% growth.<\/p>\n

Last year, moveBuddha released its annual migration report, showing that Ocala had become the second-most popular city in America<\/a>. The Villages, Palm Coast and St. Augustine followed closely behind.<\/p>\n

“Ocala, FL,\u00a0wasn\u2019t the nation\u2019s favorite in 2024, but this year, its in-to-out ratio has risen 74%, from 2.39 to an astronomical 3.09. Maybe that\u2019s because it has landed on lists showcasing\u00a0how to retire on a strict budget<\/a>, or because its prices remain\u00a0affordable compared to other Florida cities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

#2 Port St. Lucie, FL, and #3 Palm Coast, FL,\u00a0have also seen 70%+ rises in their move ratios. In the case of Port St. Lucie, that\u2019s skyrocketed its ranking up 113 places. What do all three of Florida\u2019s most popular have in common? They\u2019re retirement havens, affordable compared to nearby alternatives, and off the beaten path \u2014 none are truly commutable to Florida\u2019s largest economic centers.”<\/p>\n

moveBuddha, “2025-2026 Migration Report”<\/p>\n

[BELOW: The top attraction in the U.S. can be found on this Florida island]<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the full rankings of U.S. cities by population growth are as follows:<\/p>\n

RankMetro AreaPercent Growth (2024-2025)1Ocala, FL3.4%2Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, NC3.2%3Spartanburg, SC2.8%4Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL2.7%5Punta Gorda, FL2.7%6Huntsville, AL2.6%7Wilmington, NC2.6%8St. George, UT2.5%9Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR2.4%10Raleigh-Cary, NC2.4%RankMetroNumeric Growth (2024-2025)1Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX126,7202Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX123,5573Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell61,9534Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ59,0655Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia54,1226Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX53,7967Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV50,2068Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA43,0689San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX38,40210Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL37,690Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OCALA, Fla. \u2013 On Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau released a new report showing where people are moving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6919,28,30,29,785,7154,3833,4570,2649,139,596,1911,21956],"class_list":["post-208076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-features","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-ranked","tag-lakeland","tag-marion-county","tag-migration","tag-ocala","tag-orlando","tag-pinellas-county","tag-polk-county","tag-winter-haven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}