BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI, AMY DRISCOLL AND TIM HENDERSON

 Hispanics overtook blacks as Florida's largest minority group during the 1990s, sharply increasing their presence in all 67 counties in the state,
 census figures released Tuesday show.

 Hispanic growth was so pervasive that no county saw an increase of less than 30 percent in the population group. In one dramatic example,
 Osceola County, which encompasses Orlando's southern suburbs, nearly quadrupled its Hispanic population.

 Hispanics now make up 17 percent of Florida's population, blacks 15 percent and white, non-Hispanics 65 percent -- down from 73 percent just a
 decade ago.

 Nowhere was this trend more evident than in South Florida: The Hispanic and black populations in both Miami-Dade and Broward counties grew. The white, non-Hispanic
 population did not; it remained virtually flat in Broward and plunged by 20 percent in Miami-Dade.

 The force of change was especially strong in Broward, where the Hispanic population skyrocketed by 151 percent.

 From Key West to the Georgia border, the census figures sketched a familiar portrait of explosive growth, with a multihued twist: unprecedented levels of diversity outside
 South Florida.

 Since 1990, the Hispanic population statewide grew by 70 percent. Blacks surged at least 33 percent. White, non-Hispanics barely budged by comparison, rising only by
 about 10 percent.

 The state as a whole grew by 24 percent, to nearly 16 million people.

 The census numbers suggest that the growth was propelled in large part by immigration from Latin America and the black Caribbean, as well as from other parts of the
 United States, one expert said.

 ``Florida enjoys the best of both population growth trends, attracting large numbers of domestic immigrants as well as those from outside the country,'' said William Frey,
 a demographer at California's Milken Institute who has studied the state closely. ``You are probably attracting Hispanics both from the Northeast and the traditional
 Caribbean areas.''

 SPREADING

 Instead of concentrating in South Florida, long the state's main immigrant haven, they are now spreading across the state, Frey said, likely attracted by service jobs as
 well as traditional magnets such as recreation and retirement.

 In fact, the census figures show that the Hispanic population actually grew more slowly in the four-county South Florida region -- a still-robust rate of 51 percent -- than it
 did across the state.

 South Florida as a whole grew by nearly one million people since 1990. The region -- Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties -- climbed to 5,087,153, an
 increase of 23 percent.

 The influx of Hispanics is especially pronounced in Central and agricultural Southwest Florida.

 Orlando's Orange County saw a 159-percent increase in the Hispanic population, which now is nearly one in five people in the county. In Highlands County, northwest of
 Lake Okeechobee, the Hispanic population tripled to 12 percent of the total.

 The data were culled by Census Bureau officials from last year's head count and will be used to redraw Florida's voting districts and help state legislators decide where to
 carve out two new congressional seats.

 But the figures don't include estimates for people missed by last year's count, mostly minorities and the poor. Census officials estimate the count left out some 3.3 million
 people nationwide.

 Race comparisons to 1990 are complicated this year because people filling out the census were able to choose more than one race for the first time, resulting in 63
 possible race combinations. That makes it impossible, for instance, to tell precisely how much the black population grew.

 But the numbers do provide the most detailed and reliable portrait of South Florida's population since the 1990 Census.

 MIAMI-DADE NUMBERS

 In Miami-Dade, the numbers show:

   A continuing rise in the number of Hispanics, who now make up 57 percent of the population, up from 49 percent in 1990. As the number of white, non-Hispanics fell,
 the black population grew at least 15 percent.

   Continued overall growth, as the total county population rose 16 percent to 2.25 million.

   Growth concentrated in the far-western suburbs, where Doral and Hialeah Gardens grew by 217 and 150 percent, respectively, and in the new condo canyons rising to
 the east in Sunny Isles Beach and Aventura, which grew by 30 percent and 64 percent.

   Near-total ethnic and racial make-overs in some areas. Twenty cities and unincorporated communities went from majority to minority white, non-Hispanic, including
 Coral Gables, Cutler Ridge and Kendall. And 15 cities and unincorporated communities went from minority to majority Hispanic, including Miami Springs, Homestead,
 Key Biscayne and Miami Beach.

 North Miami is now a majority black city, going from 32 percent black in 1990 to at least 55 percent black in 2000.

 There were some unexpected numbers that raised questions about the accuracy of the count. Built-out Hialeah, for example, grew by 20 percent, according to the census
 numbers, and Florida City saw a growth spurt of 35 percent, while booming Miami Beach lost 5 percent of its population. Miami's population was flat.

 Miami-Dade County demographers said they believed there may have been an undercount of the Hispanic population.

 ``There may have been a Hispanic undercount, particularly in immigrant areas, and the total should have been higher overall,'' said Oliver Kerr, a county demographer.
 ``That means there would be more people in Miami and Miami Beach, and Hialeah would be even higher.''

 In Broward County, the numbers showed substantial changes:

   Nearly every city in the county grew. The most dramatic change occurred in cities west of U.S. 441. Pembroke Pines, for instance, grew by 110 percent since 1990.
 Weston grew by 404 percent. Miramar was up 79 percent.

   The black population surged at least 72 percent while the number of white, non-Hispanics was essentially static.

   That black increase, together with the 151 percent rise in the Hispanic population, transformed Broward from an aging suburban county to an ethnically and racially
 diverse collage.

 In 1990, there was a 42 percent chance that two randomly selected Broward residents would be ethnically or racially different from each other, an analysis of the census
 numbers shows. That increased to 61 percent in 2000.

 Experts believe nearly all of Broward's growth is a result of some other place's loss.

 ``We think that 84 percent of Broward County's growth has been from migration,'' said June Nogle, a research demographer at the University of Florida's Bureau of
 Economic and Business Research. ``It could be from next door in Miami, or from another country.''

 Herald staff writer William Yardley contributed to this report.

                                    © 2001