Broward County, Florida


Broward County is a county in Florida, United States, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's second-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and the 17th-most populous in the United States, with 1,944,375 residents as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and most populous city is Fort Lauderdale, which had a population of 182,760 as of 2020. The county is part of the South Florida region of the state.
Broward County is one of the three counties that make up the Miami metropolitan area, which is home to 6.14 million people as of 2020. It is also one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the entire country. As of 2022, Broward County has a gross domestic product of $124.8 billion, the second-largest GDP of Florida's 67 counties and the 25th-largest for the nation's 3,033 counties.

History

Native people

The earliest evidence of Native American settlement in the Miami region came from about 12,000 years ago. The first inhabitants settled on the banks of the Miami River, with the main villages on the northern banks.
The inhabitants at the time of first European contact were the Tequesta people, who controlled much of southeastern Florida, including what is now Miami-Dade County, Broward County, and the southern part of Palm Beach County. The Tequesta Indians fished, hunted, and gathered the fruit and roots of plants for food, but did not practice any form of agriculture. They buried the small bones of the deceased with the rest of the body, and put the larger bones in a box for the village people to see. The Tequesta are credited with making the Miami Circle.

Founding of Broward

Broward County was founded on April 30, 1915. It was intended to be named Everglades County, but then-Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Ion Farris amended the bill that established the county to name it in honor of Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, governor of Florida from 1905 to 1909.
Throughout his term as governor, Broward championed Everglades drainage and was remembered for his campaign to turn the Everglades into "useful land". This opened up much of today's urban Broward County for development, first as agricultural land and later as residential. A year before Broward became governor, Dania became the first incorporated community of what is now Broward County, followed by Pompano in 1908, and Fort Lauderdale in 1911.
In 1915, Palm Beach and Dade counties contributed nearly equal portions of land to create Broward County.
Broward County began a huge development boom after its incorporation, with the first "tourist hotel", in Fort Lauderdale, opening in 1919. A year later, developers began dredging wetlands in the county to create island communities.

Land boom and rapid growth

By 1925, the boom was considered to have reached its peak, but the 1926 Miami hurricane caused economic depression in the county. The county saw another population and development boom post-World War II when the transformation from agricultural to urbanized residential area began.
In 1967, Coconut Creek was incorporated.
The effects of a national recession hit the county in 1974 and the population growth finally slowed. This is from a peak growth percentage change of 297.9% which saw the population of Broward grow from 83,933 as of 1950 to 333,946 in 1960. The population subsequently experienced an 85.7% population growth which brought the population to a total of 620,100 in 1970.

Recent history

The structure of the Broward County government was signed into law in 1975 with the passage of the Broward County charter. In the same year, the Seminole Tribe of Florida incorporated as a governing entity and began organizing cigarette sales, bingo and land leases that would bring millions of dollars in annual revenue in later years. In 1976, Interstate 95 was completed through Broward County.
On January 19, 1977, snow fell in South Florida for the first time in recorded history. Snow was seen across all of South Florida as far south as Homestead and even on Miami Beach. Snow was officially reported by weather observers in West Palm Beach, LaBelle, Hollywood, and Royal Palm Ranger Station in southern Miami-Dade County.
In the year 1980, the US census reported over 1 million people living in Broward County.
On August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew passed through Broward County County, causing $100 million in damage in the county and leaving many residents homeless.
In the year 2000, the US census reported a total population of 1,623,018. The town of South West Ranches was incorporated this year.
On March 1, 2005, West Park became Broward County's 31st municipality to be incorporated.
On October 24, 2005, Hurricane Wilma hit South Florida leaving the entire area damaged and causing almost universal power outages. Wilma was the most damaging storm in Broward County since Hurricane King in 1950. Broward experienced wind speeds between which endured for about five hours.
On February 14, 2018, the city of Parkland became the scene of a deadly mass shooting perpetrated by a 19-year-old former student of Stoneman Douglas High School. The trial of the perpetrator of the shooting, Nikolas Cruz, was held at the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida in Broward County in 2022 with Judge Elizabeth Scherer presiding. Cruz was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
In June 2020, following the George Floyd protests, some residents called for the county to be renamed due to Governor Broward's support for segregation and the Back-to-Africa movement.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of, of which is land and is water.
Broward County has an average elevation of above sea level. It is rather new geologically and at the eastern edge of the Florida Platform, a carbonate plateau created millions of years ago. Broward County is composed of Oolite limestone while western Broward is composed mostly of Bryozoa. Broward is among the last areas of Florida to be created and populated with fauna and flora, mostly in the Pleistocene.
Of developable land in Broward County, approximately, the majority is built upon, as the urban area is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Everglades Wildlife Management Area to the west. Within developable land, Broward County has a population density of 3,740 per square mile.
Broward approved the construction of Osborne Reef, an artificial reef made of tires off the Fort Lauderdale beach, but it has proven to be an environmental disaster.

Adjacent counties

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 1,944,375. The median age was 41.4 years, 20.5% of residents were under the age of 18, and 17.2% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 93.4 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 90.8 males age 18 and over.
The racial makeup of the county was 39.9% White, 27.4% Black or African American, 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 3.9% Asian, <0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 8.6% from some other race, and 19.8% from two or more races, while Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 31.3% of the population.
100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while <0.1% lived in rural areas.
There were 756,657 households in the county, of which 30.1% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 42.6% were married-couple households, 19.5% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 30.9% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 27.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 860,329 housing units, of which 12.1% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 60.9% were owner-occupied and 39.1% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.6% and the rental vacancy rate was 7.7%.

Racial and ethnic composition

Historical racial composition20202010200019901980
White 33.1%43.5%58.0%74.9%84.3%
Hispanic or Latino31.3%25.1%16.7%8.6%4.0%
Black or African American 26.6%25.7%20.0%14.9%10.9%
Asian 3.8%3.2%2.3%1.3%0.8%
Native American 0.2%0.2%0.2%0.2%0.8%
Some other race 1.1%0.5%0.4%0.1%0.8%
Two or more races 3.8%1.7%2.4%N/AN/A
Population1,944,3751,748,0661,623,0181,255,4881,018,200

Demographic characteristics20202010200019901980
Households860,329810,388741,043528,442417,517
Persons per household2.262.162.192.382.44
93.493.993.391.991.0
Ages 0–1720.5%22.4%23.6%20.4%21.0%
Ages 18–6462.3%63.3%60.3%58.8%57.0%
Ages 65 +17.2%14.3%16.1%20.8%22.0%
Median age41.439.737.837.638.7
Population1,944,3751,748,0661,623,0181,255,4881,018,200

Language spoken at home20202010200019901980
English only57.5%62.5%71.2%82.3%88.3%
Spanish or Spanish Creole27.6%22.9%16.3%8.0%3.7%
French or Haitian Creole7.0%7.2%5.4%3.3%1.4%
Other Languages7.8%7.4%7.1%6.4%6.6%