Florida's population consists mainly of whites of northern European stock, blacks, and Hispanics. European immigrants came primarily from Germany and the United Kingdom. Germans were particularly important in the development of the citrus fruit industry. Since World War II, the development of southern Florida as a haven for retired northerners has added new population elements to the state, a trend augmented by the presence of numerous military bases.
Florida's foreign-born population numbered 2,670,828 in 2000, or 16.7% of the state total—the fourth-highest percentage of foreign born in the nation. The largest group of first- and second-generation residents are Cubans, who represented 5.2% of Florida's population in 2000. There were 2,682,715 Hispanics and Latinos in 2000, including 833,120 Cubans (more than 100,000 of whom arrived on Florida shores as refugees in 1980), 482,027 Puerto Ricans, and 363,925 Mexicans.
The nonwhite population, as reported in 2000, was 3,517,349, or 12% of the total state population. Black-white relations in the 20th century were tense. There were race riots following World War I, and the Ku Klux Klan was openly active until World War II. One of the worst race riots in US history devastated black areas of Miami in the spring of 1980. The black population was estimated at 2,335,505 as of 2000, the fourth-largest in the nation.
Florida's indigenous inhabitants resisted encroachment from settlers longer and more militantly than tribes in other seaboard states. The leaders in resistance were the Seminole, most of whom by the 1850s had been killed or removed to other states, had fled to the Florida swamplands, or had been assimilated as small farmers. No peace treaty was signed with the Seminole until 1934, following the Indian Reorganization Act that attempted to establish tribal integrity and self-government for Indian nations. In 1939, the Native American population was reported as only 600, but the 2000 census reported a figure of 53,541 Native Americans. The difference is too large to be explained by natural increase, and there is no evidence of marked in-migration; presumably, then, it reflects a growing consciousness of Indian identity. There are seven Indian reservations: five for the Seminole—Big Cypress, Hollywood, Brighton, Immokalee, and Tampa, and two for the Miccosuckee—one on the Tamiami Trail and one north of Alligator Alley near Big Cypress.
As of 2000 Florida had an Asian population of 266,256 (eighth largest in the nation), or 1.7% of the total state population. The number of Pacific Islanders was estimated at 8,625. In 2000 there were 54,310 Filipinos, 46,368 Chinese, 70,740 Asian Indians (up from 22,240 in 1990), 33,190 Vietnamese (up from 14,586 in 1990), 10,897 Japanese, 19,139 Koreans, and 2,131 native Hawaiians.