By Brian French
March 31, 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
The Briefing Your PR Firm Should Have Already Given You
If your public relations firm is pitching you local TV segments, regional trade press, and Florida Business Journal placements as the centerpiece of your communications strategy, it is time for a direct conversation. Not because those outlets don’t matter — they do. But because the market you are operating in has outgrown that playbook entirely, and the firms that don’t recognize it are costing their clients real competitive ground.
Florida is not a regional market with national aspirations. It is a global economy that happens to be governed as a U.S. state. The distinction matters enormously for how businesses here should be communicating, positioning, and competing — and it matters most to the PR firms advising them.
Here is the briefing that every public relations professional in Florida should have internalized by now.
The Market Your Clients Are Actually Operating In
Florida’s economy is the fourth-largest in the United States, with a $1.726 trillion gross state product (GSP) 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.
Read that again. Ahead of Spain. Behind South Korea. This is not a talking point — it is a data point from the International Monetary Fund, and it fundamentally reframes what it means to operate a business — or a PR practice — in this state.
Florida is responsible for 5.82% of the United States’ approximately $28 trillion gross domestic product. That share has been growing steadily, driven by an economic engine that has consistently outperformed the national average for years. Florida’s real (inflation-adjusted) GDP reached approximately $1.3 trillion in 2024 — up 3.6% from 2023 and the highest on record.
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 it is narrowing. A PR firm that understands this trajectory is advising clients very differently than one that doesn’t.
How Florida Got Here: Two Decades of Compounding Growth
Understanding the magnitude of this market requires knowing how it was built, because the forces behind Florida’s growth are the same forces reshaping who your clients’ audiences are, where their competitors are coming from, and which media markets actually matter for their reputations.
In the early 2000s, Florida’s nominal GSP was approximately $650 billion — fifth in the nation, squarely behind the traditional economic powerhouses. By 2024, FRED data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis places Florida’s nominal GSP at $1,726,709.9 million — representing roughly 166% nominal growth over two decades.
That growth was not smooth. The 2007–2009 financial crisis hit Florida hard, collapsing its housing market and stalling real GDP growth for several years. The state clawed back slowly through 2012–2016. Then the acceleration began in earnest.
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 year.
The long arc is equally compelling. 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.
For a PR firm, the strategic implication is this: the clients you are serving today are operating in a market that has grown faster than most of the developed world for three decades running. Their stakeholders, their competitors, and their media landscape reflect that scale — whether or not your communications strategy does.
Who Is Actually In This Market Now
This is where many Florida PR firms have the most catching up to do. The audience for your clients’ messages is no longer primarily local or even regional. It is national and international — and it arrived here faster than most practitioners adjusted.
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 incoming residents are not retirees moving to Boca in search of early-bird specials. They are C-suite executives, hedge fund managers, tech entrepreneurs, international investors, and high-income professionals — people whose media consumption, peer networks, and decision-making reach far beyond state lines. A PR strategy that treats them as a local audience is a PR strategy that misses them entirely.
The corporate migration tells an even sharper story. 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 global investor relations obligations, international press offices, and communications strategies built for the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and Bloomberg — not just the South Florida Business Journal. When they become your clients’ neighbors, partners, competitors, or acquirers, the communications environment shifts accordingly. PR firms in Florida need to be operating at that altitude.
The Economic Pillars Driving Global Attention
Understanding which sectors are generating Florida’s growth is essential intelligence for any PR firm advising clients in this market, because those sectors determine where the capital, the talent, and the media attention are flowing.
The real estate, rental, and leasing industry contributed the most to Florida’s GDP in 2024 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.
Tourism remains a foundational pillar with outsized PR implications. 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 — all of whom are potential amplifiers for the right story told in the right way.
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 coverage. Each represents a client opportunity for PR firms sophisticated enough to pitch and place stories at that level.
Florida’s economy spans international banking, aerospace and defense, biomedical and life sciences, commercial space travel, and a rapidly expanding technology sector. These are industries that generate stories covered by national and international outlets — Reuters, the Associated Press, TechCrunch, the Financial Times, industry trade publications with global circulations. Local placement strategies alone do not serve clients competing in these sectors.
Where the Market Is Heading — And Why It Matters for Communications Strategy
The forward trajectory of Florida’s economy should be shaping how PR firms are building their own capabilities, talent, and media relationships right now.
The UCF Institute for Economic Forecasting projects that 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 an ambitious 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.
Within the United States, Florida is on a credible trajectory to challenge New York for the No. 3 spot nationally. If Florida sustains its recent growth advantage, it could realistically match New York’s economic output 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, the media relationships being built or neglected, and the strategic positioning being established or squandered today.
The Headwinds Deserve Honest Coverage Too
A PR firm that only tells the growth story is not serving its clients well. Honest counsel requires acknowledging the pressures this market is navigating.
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, workforce availability, and rising insurance costs are real storylines that sophisticated Florida businesses are managing publicly. PR firms that can help clients navigate those narratives with credibility and transparency are providing genuine strategic value.
Climate risk — rising insurance premiums, coastal infrastructure demands, hurricane exposure — adds a reputational and operational dimension that global investors and international media are increasingly scrutinizing. Florida companies with thoughtful, proactive communications strategies around climate resilience will be better positioned than those who treat it as a topic to avoid.
The Standard Has Changed. Has Your Firm?
The PR firms that will define this market over the next decade are the ones that already understand Florida not as a large regional market, but as a global economic arena that demands global-caliber thinking. That means national and international media relationships, not just local ones. It means crisis communications capabilities scaled to the complexity of a $1.7 trillion economy. It means understanding the investor relations, government affairs, and cross-border communications needs of the multinational corporations that are now headquartered here alongside the homegrown businesses that built this market.
The clients are here. The economy is here. The question is whether the PR firms advising them are operating at the level this market now demands — or whether they are still pitching regional outlets for a global economy.
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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