Key West is the southernmost city in the continental United States and is actually closer to Cuba (95 miles (153 km)) than to Miami (130 miles (209 km))!
Florida (U.S. State)
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Facts About Florida (U.S. State)
The Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, has the largest collection of Dalí’s works outside of Spain, with more than 2,100 pieces!
The Florida Keys are a chain of about 200 islands stretching for 180 miles (290 kilometers), connected by 42 bridges including the Seven Mile Bridge, which is — you guessed it — seven miles long!
Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, has a magical Wizarding World of Harry Potter where you can drink butterbeer and shop for wands at Ollivanders!
Florida’s Everglades National Park is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States and is home to 36 protected species, including the Florida panther!
Weeki Wachee Springs State Park in Florida features real-life “mermaids” who have been performing underwater shows since 1947!
LEGOLAND Florida in Winter Haven is built on the site of the former Cypress Gardens, which was Florida’s first commercial theme park, opening in 1936!
The Miami Beach Art Deco Historic District has over 800 buildings from the 1920s and 1930s, making it one of the largest collection of Art Deco architecture in the world!
The Overseas Highway connects the Florida Keys to the mainland and includes 42 bridges over the ocean — it’s like driving on top of the water!
Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida, is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States, built by the Spanish between 1672 and 1695!
Florida is home to more than 4 million Hispanic or Latino residents, making Spanish the second most commonly spoken language in the state!
Florida’s population increases during winter months, when “snowbirds” (people from colder northern states) come to enjoy the warm weather!
Chris Evert, one of the greatest tennis players of all time with 18 Grand Slam singles titles, was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida!
The Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City attracts more than 500,000 visitors each year and celebrates the annual strawberry harvest!
Jim Morrison, the lead singer of the famous rock band The Doors, was born in Melbourne, Florida, in 1943!
The Miami Heat, and Orlando Magic are Florida’s two professional basketball teams in the NBA!
Key lime pie, Florida’s official state pie since 2006, was invented in Key West in the late 1800s using limes that grow in the Florida Keys!
The Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa celebrates the legend of José Gaspar, a mythical Spanish pirate, and features a pirate invasion where hundreds of boats fill Tampa Bay, Florida!
More than 1500 new residents move to Florida every day, making it one of the fastest-growing states in America!
Gloria Estefan, a famous singer who has won seven Grammy Awards, moved to Miami, Florida, from Cuba when she was a young girl!
Mickey Mouse has been a legal resident of Florida since 1971 when Walt Disney World opened, and he receives fan mail at a special post office there!
The Florida State Seminoles’ mascots, Osceola and Renegade, are officially approved by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, making them one of the few Native American mascots endorsed by the tribe they represent!
Stone crab claws are a famous Florida delicacy, but fishermen only take one claw and return the crab to the water, where it can regrow its claw!
Florida has more golf courses than any other state in America, with more than 1,200 courses where people can play year-round because of the warm weather!
No point in Florida is more than 60 miles (97 kilometers) from the ocean, which means you’re always within about an hour’s drive of a beach!
Florida is famous for its juicy watermelons, growing over 800 million pounds every year. Even though other states like Texas produce even more, Florida’s sweet watermelons are a tasty treat all on their own!
The world’s first scheduled passenger airline service started in Florida in 1914, flying between St. Petersburg and Tampa — a trip that took 23 minutes!
Florida is home to about 80 to 90 different species of mosquitoes, nearly half of all mosquito species found in the United States!
Cape Canaveral, Florida, has launched thousands of rockets and spacecraft since the 1950s, making it one of the busiest spaceports in the world!
Florida’s state animal, the endangered Florida panther, is so rare that there are only about 200 left in the wild as of 2024.
The Florida scrub-jay is the only bird species that lives exclusively in Florida and nowhere else in the world!
Florida’s state gemstone is the moonstone, which was chosen because of the state’s connection to moon launches and space exploration!
There are more than 1 million alligators living in Florida’s swamps, rivers, lakes, and golf course water hazards!
Florida has more toll roads than any other state in the U.S., with over 700 miles (1,127 kilometers) of toll highways and bridges!
Gatorade was invented at the University of Florida in 1965 to help the football team (the “Gators”) stay hydrated in hot weather!
Florida is the only state in the U.S. with two rivers, both named “Withlacoochee” — one in the north and one in the central/southern part of the state!
Florida has more than 4,500 square miles of estuaries (places where fresh water and salt water mix), which serve as nurseries for many fish and shellfish!
The Kissimmee River flows into Lake Okeechobee, which then flows through the Everglades in a shallow river about 40 miles (64 kilometers) wide but only a few inches deep!
Devil’s Den in Williston, Florida, is an underground spring inside a dry cave that stays 72 degrees year-round and contains fossils from the Pleistocene Age!
The Suwannee River, made famous by the song “Old Folks at Home,” flows 246 miles (396 kilometers) from Georgia through Florida to the Gulf of Mexico!
Florida has more sinkholes than any other state because it sits on top of limestone, which can be dissolved by rainwater to create underground caves that sometimes collapse!
The St. Johns River is one of the few major rivers in the United States that flows north instead of south, traveling 310 miles (499 kilometers) from central Florida to Jacksonville!
Wakulla Springs near Tallahassee is one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs in the world, with water so clear that you can see more than 80 feet (24 meters) down!
Florida has more than 1,200 miles (1,931 kilometers) of canals, which would stretch from Florida to Chicago if placed end to end!
Lake Okeechobee covers 730 square miles (1,890 km²), making it the second-largest freshwater lake contained entirely within the United States (after Lake Michigan)!
The oldest wooden schoolhouse in the United States still stands in St. Augustine, Florida, and was built more than 200 years ago!
According to legend, Ponce de León came to Florida looking for the legendary Fountain of Youth, which was said to make old people young again — he never found it, but you can visit a park in St. Augustine that claims to be where he looked!
Key West once briefly declared itself an independent nation called the “Conch Republic” in 1982 as a protest, and it still celebrates its “independence day” every April!
