The first census of Florida, taken in 1830, fifteen years before the territory became a state, reported a population of 34,730. St. Augustine, founded in 1565 and the oldest continuously settled town in the U.S., was the only city considered large enough to be separately enumerated in the 1830 census. The only other settlements of any consequence were: Pensacola, first settled in 1559, abandoned two years later and permanently resettled in 1752; Tallahassee, chosen as the territorial capital in 1823 because of its location halfway between St. Augustine and Pensacola; and Key West, long a haven for pirates and adventurers and the site of a U.S. naval base and lighthouse built in the 1820s.
By the 1860 census Florida's population had risen to 140,424, much of which was in the north. Plantation agriculture, primarily of cotton, had developed in north Florida from Madison to Jackson counties. Tallahassee was the hub of the region and the center of the slave trade. Cotton was exported through the bustling port of Apalachicola, where in 1848 Dr. John Gorrie invented an ice-making machine, the forerunner of modern refrigeration and air conditioning. Some of the forts constructed during the Second Seminole War (1835-42), such as Ft. Brooke (Tampa) and Ft. Dallas (Miami), became the locations for later permanent settlements. Cigar manufacturers from Cuba and sponge fishermen contributed to the continuing prosperity of Key West.
By the turn of the century, the state's population exceeded one-half million. Railroads built by Henry Flagler and Henry Plant connected Florida to population centers along the Eastern Seaboard. These men built luxury hotels along their railroads and provided impetus for growth of Tampa, St. Augustine, Ormond Beach, Palm Beach, and Miami. The Spanish-American War further stimulated Florida's growth. The sinking of the U.S. battleship Maine in Havana Harbor in 1898 brought troops to Tampa, Key West, and Miami. By 1920 development in Florida was booming - St. Petersburg, Coral Gables, Miami Beach, Sarasota, Palm Beach, and Boca Raton - all experienced phenomenal growth. In Miami Beach in 1925 alone, 481 hotels and apartment houses were built.
Hurricanes and the Depression slowed Florida's growth in the late 1920s and 1930s, but its growth again accelerated in the 1940s, especially in the south. Between 1920 and 1940 the number of urban places in Florida increased from seven to sixteen. The 1960 census identified increasing suburbanization with a corresponding decrease in the number of urban places. Between 1960 and 1980, Florida's population nearly doubled, increasing from 4,951,567 in 1960 to 9,739,992 in 1980. In 1980, 80 percent of Florida's population was in south and central Florida.
