Which Out-of-State Metros Send the Most New Residents to Tampa Bay?

By John Egan

December 05, 2016

Sun-seeking baby boomers appear to be flocking in great numbers from the New York, NY, metro area to Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL.

From 2010 to 2014, the New York metro area supplied an estimated 8,027 new residents each year to the Tampa Bay metro area, according to a LawnStarter analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. Not only is New York the top out-of-state metro area supplying new Tampa Bay residents, but it’s the overall No. 1 metro for new arrivals in Tampa-St. Petersburg -- beating every Florida metro in that regard.

Rich Doty, research demographer at the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research, says counties in the Northeast and Midwest continually send the most new residents to Central Florida and South Florida. Given that New York is so big, it tends to be a huge source of new residents for Florida destinations like Tampa Bay, he says. Doty and other researchers think retiring baby boomers represent a large chunk of the New York-to-Florida crowd.

Statistics from the Census Bureau show that after New York, four Florida metro areas -- Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Lakeland-Winter Haven and North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton -- are the top drivers of residential traffic into Tampa Bay. Here’s the rundown, based on estimates from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for 2010-14:

Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL -- 6,697 new residents per year supplied to Tampa Bay Orlando, FL -- 5,980 new residents per year supplied to Tampa Bay Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL -- 3,827 new residents per year supplied to Tampa Bay North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL -- 3,487 new residents per year supplied to Tampa Bay

So, aside from New York, where do new Tampa Bay arrivals from outside Florida come from? We crunched the Census Bureau numbers to answer that question. The numbers were released in September 2016.

In the infographic below, you’ll find the top 12 metro areas outside Florida that contribute the most new residents to Tampa Bay each year. And you’ll also see how many Tampa Bay residents head every year to those same 12 out-of-state metros.