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Fact Sheet

• 4th most popular state at: 18,400,000
• Total water area – 4,424 square miles
• Rank among states in total area – 22nd
• Highest Natural Point – 345 feet
• Geographic Center – 12 miles northwest of Brooksville, Hernando County
• Beaches – 663 miles
• Largest county – Palm Beach, 2,578 square miles
• First permanent European settlement – 1565, St. Augustine, by Spain
• Acquired from Spain as a U.S. Territory – 1821
• Admitted as 27th state of the U.S. – March 3, 1845
• Capital - Tallahassee
• Population 2005 (estimate) – 17,789,864 (Rank 4th)
• Population 2004 (estimate) – 17,397,161 (Rank 4th)
• Population 2000 – 15,982,378 (Rank 4th)
• Population 1990 – 12,937,926
• Saint Augustine is the oldest European settlement in North America.
  
• The name Punta Gorda, which means, “fat point” when translated from Spanish. The moniker was given to the city because a broad part of the land in Punta Gorda juts into Charlotte Harbor. The harbor itself is somewhat unique, as it is the point where the Peace River meets the ocean.
  
• Orlando attracts more visitors than any other amusement park destination in the United States.
  
• A museum in Sanibel owns 2 million shells and claims to be the world’s only museum devoted solely to mollusks.
  
• The Benwood, on French Reef in the Florida Keys, is known as one of the most dived shipwrecks in the world.
  
• Dr. John Gorrie of Apalachicola invented mechanical refrigeration in 1851.
  
• Miami Beach pharmacist Benjamin Green invented the first suntan cream in 1944. He accomplished this development by cooking cocoa butter in a granite coffee pot on his wife’s stove.
  
  
  
  

reference

http://dhr.dos.state.fl.us/kids/facts.cfm

http://www.50states.com/facts/florida.htm

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/Fish/southflorida/news/pythonsgonewild2004.html

http://www.imdb.com