Census: Broward, Palm Beach show largest increases

 BY TIM HENDERSON, MARIKA LYNCH AND WILLIAM YARDLEY

 Hispanics, already the largest ethnic group in Miami-Dade County, are
 rapidly spreading out through South Florida, making the region one of the
 most populous Hispanic areas in America.

 Estimates released by the U.S. Census bureau today show explosive
 growth in the number of Hispanics in Broward and Palm Beach counties
 between 1990 and 1999. Hispanics in Miami-Dade, who a decade ago fell
 shy of a majority, now make up 57 percent of the county's 2.1 million
 residents.

   In Broward, the Hispanic population grew by more than 75 percent. Only
 Las Vegas' Clark County had a faster Hispanic growth rate. Palm Beach
 ranked third.

   Dade has the highest concentration of Hispanics of any metropolitan
 center nationally. Only Dade and San Antonio's Bexar County have a
 Hispanic majority.

   In Collier County, the Hispanic population in the '90s rose from
 21,000 to 38,000. In Monroe County, the population would have declined in
 the past decade without the Latin influx.

 ``We really are at the heart of an international region,'' said Carolyn
 Dekle, executive director of the South Florida Regional Planning Council.

 Though Dade has long been the region's Hispanic magnet, the
 estimates confirm that Latin families are spreading out to the Keys and the
 edge of the Everglades as South Florida grows.

 Some of the increase is a Dade spillover that started after Hurricane Andrew
 devastated South Dade in 1992. Increasingly, though, more Hispanics are
 migrating directly to Broward and Palm Beach Counties where Hispanic
 populations boomed 77 and 71 percent respectively in the 1990s.

 ``Broward County continues to absorb people who have settled into Dade County,
 look around . . . and find residential communities in Broward County are an
 attractive alternative,'' Richard Ogburn, the council's principal planner said.

 Others, he said, move directly to Broward because ``there is already a community
 of Peruvians, Colombians or Puerto Ricans.''

 STILL A MINORITY

 Though the growth in Broward and Palm Beach is substantial, Hispanics there
 make up only 13 and 11 percent of the total population. They are far outnumbered
 by white non-Hispanics, the largest group, and even black non-Hispanics, a group
 whose numbers are fueled by migration from the Caribbean.

 Broward and Palm Beach ranked fourth and fifth for black non-Hispanic growth
 rates among urban counties, a population that grew 42 and 37 percent
 respectively. The change was not lost on Andy Ingraham, head of Horizons
 Marketing, which helps local governments attract Caribbean business and
 tourism.

 ``I didn't realize it was that much, but the growth of the Caribbean/West Indian
 community has been phenomenal in the western part of the county -- Plantation,
 Lauderdale Lakes,'' Ingraham said.

 DADE IMMIGRATION

 In Dade, the number of black non-Hispanics has risen slightly -- 5 percent.
 Meanwhile, Hispanics became the majority in 1990s, and fortified that position.
 Dade's immigration rate, which far outstrips other major magnets for newcomers,
 is a primary reason.

 While Dade has the nation's highest Hispanic urban concentration, it also has
 among the lowest concentration of white non-Hispanics, second only to the
 Bronx.

 As it has over the past 20 years, the white non-Hispanic population dwindled over
 the last decade, with 88,000 leaving the county in the 1990s. The group only
 dominates one age category -- people over 85.

 ``Maybe people over a certain age don't want to move out,'' said Charles Blower,
 researcher with Dade Planning and Zoning.

 The 1999 estimates released today give a glimpse of what the 2000 Census will
 bring, though the statistics are calculated differently.

 The 2000 Census is a head count. The 1999 figures are based on birth and dead
 records, and estimates from the Immigration & Naturalization Service, said Larry
 Sink, a statistician with the U.S. Census Bureau.

 ``We are reasonably consistent. In the ballpark,'' Sink said.