Immigrants Play Big Role in Florida Economy, New Analysis Shows
One in five Florida residents is an immigrant, together making up more than a fourth of the state’s labor force, an analysis released this week by the American Immigration Council shows.
According to data from 2014, immigrant-led households in the state paid $17 billion in federal taxes and $6.4 billion in state and local taxes. As consumers, immigrant-led households spent $73.1 billion on Florida’s economy. Undocumented immigrants comprised 6.2 percent of Florida’s workforce and paid $598.7 million in state and local taxes in 2014.
The analysis showed that industries employing the most immigrants were health care (368,473 workers) and retail (314,035).
Other findings indicate that immigrant entrepreneurs in Florida generated $5.6 billion in business revenue in 2015. Immigrants accounted for 61.6 percent of business owners in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale/Miami Beach metropolitan area, 23.7 percent in the Orlando metro area, and 21.7 percent in the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater metro area.
To read more, go to americanimmigrationcouncil.org.