“Where are you from?” is the question I most often ask when I’m meeting new people here in South Florida.  The answers range widely: Colombia, Pennsylvania, Trinidad, Haiti, New Jersey, Georgia…or the occasional “right here.”  Our state has always attracted residents from all over, but new data shows that an increasing number come from outside the United States.

Earlier this year, the New York Times published a series of interactive maps tracking migration patterns in the United States.  They show how our increasingly mobile population is settling, and what the demographics are state by state.

In Florida, here’s how our population breaks down (percentages are rounded)

  • 36% were born in Florida
  • 21% came from outside the U.S.
  • 20% came from the Northeast (New York 8%, Pennsylvania 4%)
  • 15% came from the Midwest (Ohio 4%, Illinois 3%)
  • 7% came from other states in the South (Georgia 2%, Alabama 1%)
  • 3% came from the West

Where We Came From and Where We Went State by State NYTimes.com

The most notable recent change is the steady increase of people coming from outside the United States.

For those considering planting churches in South Florida, this is critical information—we must be prepared to create church cultures that embrace people from diverse cultures and unite them in the gospel.

What we are finding in the Family Church network is that the gospel does not discriminate: people from Honduras and Haiti are being baptized alongside people from Orlando or Ohio.

Interested in joining this gospel movement?  Check out the preview weekend for the SendSFL Church Planting Residency, coming up Feb 27-March 1.

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Mark Warnock is a SendSFL Church Planting Resident and Associate Pastor at Family Church Downtown.