Central West Florida Overview:
The Tampa Bay Area, or Tampa Bay, after the body of water it surrounds, is the second most populated metropolitan region in the state of Florida, the 19th-largest metro area in the United States, the fourth largest in the Southeast behind only Miami, Atlanta and Washington, and second largest on the Gulf Coast behind Houston. The population for the Tampa MSA currently stands at 2,723,949, as of a July 1, 2007 estimate, and the Greater Tampa Bay Region contains 4 million residents when including immediately adjacent urban and suburban counties to the official MSA. The Tampa Bay Partnership and U.S. Census data showed an average annual growth of 2.47 percent, or a gain of approximately 97,000 residents per year between 2000 and 2006. The combined Greater Tampa Bay region experienced a combined growth rate of 14.8 percent, growing from 3.4 million to 3.9 million and hitting the 4 million mark on April 1, 2007 in the continuous Tampa Bay urban area. In 2008 the area's construction based boom was brought to a sudden halt by the financial crisis of 2007–2009, and by 2009 it was ranked as the fourth worst performing housing market in the United States.
Regional County Facts (U.S. Census):
Population
| Regional Counties | 2006 | 2011 Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Hernando | 154,045 | 171,593 |
| Hillsborough | 1,139,830 | 1,264, 811 |
| Manatee | 306,512 | 342,712 |
| Pasco | 418,075 | 473,053 |
| Pinellas | 937,182 | 959,546 |
| Polk | 541,006 | 591,742 |
| Sarasota | 367,161 | 403,990 |
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