By Brian French
March 12, 2026
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED), Florida TaxWatch, UCF Institute for Economic Forecasting, Florida Chamber Foundation, Florida Legislature Office of Economic and Demographic Research
Wake Up. This Is Not a Regional Market.
Walk into most PR and marketing firms in South Florida and ask them to describe their market. You will hear words like “regional,” “Sun Belt,” “growing,” “emerging.” You will hear comparisons to Atlanta and Charlotte. You will hear pitches built around local TV bookings, Florida Business Journal placements, and regional trade press.
What you will not hear — almost never — is the word “global.”
That needs to change. Right now.
Florida’s economy is the fourth-largest in the United States, with a $1.726 trillion gross state product as of 2024. If Florida were a sovereign nation, it would rank as the world’s 15th-largest economy by nominal GDP — ahead of Spain and behind South Korea.
Ahead of Spain. Behind South Korea. Those are not Sun Belt comparisons. That is the global economic table, and Florida has a seat at it. Every PR firm and marketing agency in this state should have that number laminated and mounted on the wall across from the conference table — not because it is a good talking point, but because it should be changing the way they build strategies, hire talent, pitch media, and advise clients.
Most of them have not caught up. The market has lapped them.—
The Numbers That Should Reshape Every Strategy Deck in This State
The three states ahead of Florida are California ($4.103 trillion), Texas ($2.709 trillion), and New York ($2.297 trillion). The gap between Florida and New York sits at roughly $570 billion and is closing. That is the single most important economic fact for any PR or marketing professional operating in this state — because it means the communications environment here is converging rapidly with New York’s, not lagging behind it.
Florida is responsible for 5.82% of the United States’ approximately $28 trillion gross domestic product.
Florida’s real (inflation-adjusted) GDP reached approximately $1.3 trillion in 2024 — up 3.6% from 2023 and the highest on record. The real estate, rental, and leasing industry contributed the most to Florida’s GDP at $265.5 billion, followed by professional and business services at $208.3 billion and educational services, health care, and social assistance at $126.2 billion.
This is not an economy built on hotel rooms and golf courses. It is a diversified, sophisticated, capital-intensive machine that demands sophisticated communications strategy to match.
Twenty Years That Built a Global Economy — And Left Some Firms Behind
In the early 2000s, Florida’s nominal GSP was approximately $650 billion — fifth in the nation. By 2024, FRED data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis places Florida’s nominal GSP at $1,726,709.9 million — roughly 166% nominal growth in two decades.
Florida’s nominal GDP surged to 8.3% growth in Fiscal Year 2021–22, exceeding the prior peak growth rate of 6.6% recorded in Fiscal Year 2004–05. The state’s economy then expanded by a still-robust 4.9% in Fiscal Year 2022–23 and 3.7% in Fiscal Year 2023–24.
From 2021 to 2022 alone, Florida’s real GDP grew at 4.6% — the fastest of any large state that year. For all of 2023, Florida’s GDP growth rate was double the national pace of 2.5%. California, New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois all trailed the national average that same year.
Florida achieved approximately 113% real GDP growth from 1990 to 2024, outpacing the national average rate of GDP growth. Only Texas — with 128% long-term growth — outpaced Florida among the largest state economies, while Florida (4.6%) and Texas (3.9%) both grew faster than California since 2020.The implication for marketing and PR firms is direct: the clients you are serving today have been operating in one of the fastest-growing large economies on the planet for three decades. Their competitors, stakeholders, investors, and media audiences reflect that scale. Your strategy should too.
Who Is Actually In This Market — and Why It Changes Everything
This is where most South Florida PR and marketing firms are most dangerously out of step. The audience for your clients’ messages is no longer regional. It arrived here from New York, California, São Paulo, Zurich, and Seoul — and it brought its media habits and communications expectations with it.
In 2024 alone, over 700 people moved to Florida each day. The state remains one of only nine without a personal income tax, making it especially attractive to high earners, retirees, and remote workers.
Florida Chamber of Commerce data shows that migration into Florida grew at an average of 3.7% per year over the past decade, while migration out remained essentially flat — growing just 1.5% per year on average.
Florida dominates national migration rankings, home to eight of the top 10 U.S. growth cities and 12 of the top 25 per U-Haul’s 2025 Growth Index.
These are not people who came here to read local newspapers and watch local TV. They are C-suite executives, hedge fund partners, technology founders, international investors, and high-income professionals — people whose peer networks, media consumption, and decision-making extend across national and international borders. A PR strategy that treats them as a local audience is a PR strategy that misses them entirely.
The corporate migration story makes this even sharper. Major companies that relocated or significantly expanded operations in South Florida during 2024 and 2025 include Microsoft’s Latin America headquarters in Miami’s Brickell district, Citadel’s continued expansion following its headquarters relocation to Miami, Amazon’s corporate and technology expansion in Miami’s Wynwood district, and Varonis relocating its global headquarters from New York to Miami.
In 2025 alone, nearly 698,000 new businesses were formed in Florida, and roughly 67,000 new business filings were recorded in January 2026 alone. Florida leads the nation in business relocations, with more than 500 net business relocations in the most recent Florida Chamber Foundation analysis.
These are not companies with local media footprints. They have investor relations obligations, international press offices, and communications strategies built for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, the Financial Times, and Reuters — not just the South Florida Business Journal. When they become your clients’ neighbors, competitors, partners, or acquirers, your communications strategy has to operate at that altitude or it is simply not serving your clients.
Tourism Numbers That Command Global Coverage
Nearly 143 million tourists visited Florida in 2024 — a record. A 2023 impact study estimated 156.9 million visitors spent $131 billion — an average of $359 million per day — directly supporting 2.1 million jobs and $76.4 billion in employee wages.
An economy that draws 143 million visitors annually is also drawing international journalists, foreign investors, global brands, and multinational media organizations. These are potential amplifiers for the right story told at the right level. A tourism-adjacent client — hospitality, real estate, retail, food and beverage — has legitimate reasons to be pitching international lifestyle press, travel media with global distribution, and financial journalists covering the investment flows that follow tourist economies. Most Florida PR firms are not making those calls.
The Sectors Writing the Next Chapter
Florida’s economy spans international banking, aerospace and defense, biomedical and life sciences, commercial space travel, and a rapidly expanding technology sector — alongside its traditional strengths in real estate, tourism, agriculture, and construction.
The Florida Chamber Foundation reports Florida leads the nation as the No. 1 state for new business start-ups, the No. 1 state for manufacturing job growth, and the No. 1 state for net income migration.
Each of those categories generates national business press. Each one represents a client opportunity for a PR or marketing firm sophisticated enough to pitch and place at that level. Biotech stories belong in STAT News, BioPharma Dive, and the science desks of national publications. Aerospace and defense stories belong in Aviation Week, Defense News, and Space News. Finance and fintech belong in Bloomberg, the Financial Times, and Barron’s. These outlets have global readerships. They are not afterthoughts — they are the primary tier for clients operating in those sectors.
Where This Market Is Heading — And What That Means for Your Firm Right Now
The UCF Institute for Economic Forecasting projects Florida’s nominal GDP will exceed $2.06 trillion in 2028, with real GDP at $1.45 trillion. Real Gross State Product is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 2.1% from 2025 through 2028.
Florida TaxWatch projects the state’s population will increase by about 1.4 million people — from 23.4 million to 24.8 million — between 2025 and 2030, and the number of employed Floridians is projected to grow from approximately 10 million to 10.9 million over the same period.
Florida’s real GDP growth is expected to outpace the U.S. average through 2030, while unemployment is projected to remain near or below the national average.
The Florida Chamber Foundation has set a long-term goal of making Florida a top-10 global economy by 2030, having already surpassed Spain and standing just $25.5 billion behind Australia as of late 2025.
Florida could realistically challenge New York for the No. 3 spot nationally sometime in the mid-to-late 2030s. That is not a distant abstraction. It is a communications environment that is taking shape right now, in the clients being won and lost today, in the media relationships being built or neglected today, and in the strategic positioning being established or squandered today.—
Be Honest About the Headwinds Too — That Is Part of the Job
A PR or marketing firm that only tells the growth story is not serving its clients or its own credibility. Honest counsel requires acknowledging the pressures this market is navigating — and advising clients on how to communicate through them.
Florida’s net domestic migration slowed sharply to about 23,000 in 2025 compared to roughly 314,000 in 2022, as housing costs have risen and the affordability gap with high-cost markets has narrowed.
The Florida Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research projects continued deceleration to more typical growth rates of 1.9% to 2.0% in the near term, stabilizing at around 2.1% to 2.2% beginning in Fiscal Year 2028–29.
The top destinations for those leaving Florida are Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, and North Carolina — states with either no income tax and/or a lower cost of living.
Housing affordability, rising insurance costs, and workforce availability are genuine storylines that sophisticated Florida businesses are managing publicly. Firms that can help clients navigate those narratives with credibility and transparency are providing real strategic value. Firms that don’t raise them are leaving their clients exposed.
Climate risk — rising premiums, coastal infrastructure demands, hurricane exposure — adds a reputational and operational dimension that global investors and international media are increasingly scrutinizing. Florida companies with proactive, clear communications around resilience and long-term planning will be better positioned than those who treat it as a subject to avoid.
The Standard Has Changed. Has Your Firm?
Florida is not becoming a major market. It already is one. The question — the only question that matters for PR and marketing firms operating here — is whether your capabilities, your talent, your media relationships, and your strategic instincts match the market you are actually in.
That means national and international media relationships alongside local ones. It means crisis communications capabilities scaled to the complexity of a $1.7 trillion economy. It means understanding investor relations, cross-border communications, and the reputational needs of multinational corporations that are now headquartered here alongside the homegrown businesses that built this market.
The firms arriving from outside Florida — the New York agencies opening Miami offices, the global consultancies building South Florida practices — are not coming here because it is easy. They are coming because they already understand what Florida is. Florida-based PR and marketing firms that meet them at that level will grow with this economy. Those that don’t will find themselves outbid and outpositioned by competitors who did their homework.
The homework is right here. There is no excuse for not knowing it.
Note: “Gross State Product” (GSP) is the standard state-level equivalent of GDP as defined by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. All figures refer to GSP/GDP unless otherwise noted. Nominal figures are in current dollars; real figures are inflation-adjusted in chained 2017 dollars.
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