In Tampa, the coolest month is January, when the average high is 70 degrees. For people used to Northeast and Midwest winters, that can sound like a dream.
Perhaps that’s one of the reasons Tampa has grown so much recently. In fact, the metro area’s population went from 2,971,086 to 3,032,171 between July 2015 and July 2016, a 2.06 percent rise, according to the latest census data.
During that time, the population of Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located, grew slightly more quickly. It went from 1,347,077 to 1,376,238, a 2.16 percent increase. (The metro area is larger than the county, and its population is bigger.)
Over the longer term, Hillsborough County has gained tens of thousands of new residents. Some of that growth comes from new births and immigration, but a good chunk of it is also due to people moving into the area from other places in the U.S. Indeed, the county attracted 74,229 domestic movers from 2011 to 2015, according to another census study that covers those years.
Where, you’re probably asking, are all those people moving from?
That same census study gives us a pretty good idea. It probably won’t surprise you that many of them come from places with chilly winters. Overall, slightly less than half (48 percent) of domestic movers to Tampa came from within Florida, and the balance (52 percent) came from elsewhere within the U.S., mostly New York City.
Below are rankings for the top five counties of origin for movers to Hillsborough County:
Movers outside of Florida:
- Cook County, IL (Chicago)
- Kings County, NY (Brooklyn)
- Bronx County, NY
- Nassau County, NY (western side of Long Island)
- Tarrant County, TX (Fort Worth)
Movers from Florida:
- Pinellas County
- Pasco County
- Polk County
- Miami-Dade County
- Orange County
Above are the top places inside Florida that people moved to Hillsborough County from over the five-year period 2011-2015. Numbers represent the number of movers from that place during the period.
Sources:
U.S. Census Bureau
