Wakulla Co. sees population growth as Florida's population surpasses 23 million

• Wakulla County's population is growing along with Florida's overall population.
• Businesses in the county are adjusting as more neighbors move in.
• Watch the video above to see where new neighbors are coming from.

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Florida’s population just passed 23 million for the first time, and some of those people have moved to Wakulla County. I’m Kenzie Krueger in Crawfordville. I'm looking at the growing population here as the demand for housing goes up with it.

“I remember as a young man when we visited these areas to go to the beach there was only a Winn Dixie. I don’t remember if there was even a caution light, but now we’ve got more roundabouts than Tallahassee.” Cobb Adams works at Southern Storage Solutions.

He says he’s met a lot of new people moving to the area. “From California to Maine people are coming from everywhere. I’ll ask them what brought you here and they’ll say we passed through here 20 years ago and we loved it and now they’ve made it their home.”

SEE HOW WAKULLA COUNTY IS WORKING TO ADD AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN THE VIDEO BELOW:

Data shows more people are moving into Florida and Wakulla County.

The county’s estimated 2024 population is over 37,000 with a growth of nearly 4 percent in the last year according to the US Census. The population in 2010 was almost 31,000 and has seen a growth of 22.4 percent since that time.

With more people comes a growing demand for housing here.

Jay Estes is a contractor in the county. “I haven’t sold a lot of houses for locals around here most of the people that buy my houses are moving in some from Tallahassee but then you have people from California and North Carolina in Utah so you get to see a little bit of a lot of different people moving in.” He says the growth could be beneficial for local businesses and the economy. “I think it’s good I think it brings businesses in, it helps locals start businesses that back ten years ago would’ve never lasted here.”

Some neighbors say they like the growth of Wakulla County and others want it to slow down.

Adams says having balance is always good. “I love the growth I think there can be some excessive growth with businesses but other than that I think it’s a great thing.”

The Associated Press reported Florida's population growth is expected to peak this year and get smaller for the rest of the 2020s. That's because the final group of baby boomers entering retirement will start getting smaller.