Big Pine Key, Florida

Monroe County

12-06425

Big Pine Key is a census -designated place (CDP ) in Monroe County in the U.S. state of Florida with 4,252 inhabitants ( 2010).

• 2.1 Demographics

Geography

The CDP Big Pine Key is also an island that belongs to the Florida Keys. It lies on the Overseas Highway (U.S. 1, SR 5 ) and is located about 40 miles from Key West and 200 miles from Miami.

Climate

The climate is mild and warm, with a light steady wind. Statistically, it rains in the summer months to an average of 30 % of the days, even if only temporarily. The highest temperatures are from May to October, with up to 33 ° C. The coldest months from December to February with an average of only 12 ° C. Snowfall is almost unknown in the region.

History

The first signs of the colonization of Big Pine Key can be found already in 1845, when the U.S. government awarded a portion of that land in Florida, to build schools and colonization. One of the main activities at this time was the production of charcoal. The first charcoal burners George Wilson is mentioned as early as 1870 in the first major census. The production of charcoal was quite simple: the wood was bundled and heaped up like a coal kiln to a pyramid. Then covered with kelp, canvas, sand and mortar to hold the heat. After a controlled fire was kindled in the center. The process took several days and always had to stay under observation to prevent the wood burned.

Another pastime was the rescue of shipwrecked whose vessels strayed in the Gulf of Mexico or were thrown by a storm on land. By pirate sometimes intentionally false light signals were placed so that the ships stranded. 1915 Founded in Big Pines by John T. Knowles, the first Postmeisterei. In 1923, a small factory for the production of shark oil to it. It employed 25 men and had six fishing boats. They caught an average of 100 sharks per day that were processed to shark fin soup, shark liver and shark leather. 1931, the plant was closed because of financial difficulties.

The Highway, built in 1928 brought little increase of the population. The distances to the nearest major cities was just too big. This also did not change significantly by the construction of the railway in 1938. A further problem was the training. The Monroe County at that time demanded the presence of at least ten students, before the construction of a school has been approved. Dated on November 19, 1927 report includes the following sentence: ... it now has six children from two families are well and another comes in the spring to the world. As a result of the report, the project was rejected the first time to build a school. The approval to build the first school was granted on 9 February 1928.

Demographics

According to the 2010 census, the then 4,252 inhabitants distributed to 2,981 households. The population density was 168.1 inh. / Km ². 94.7 % of the population were white, 1.8% African American, 0.4% Native American and 0.8 % Asian Americans. 0.6 % were members of other ethnic groups and 1.8% in different ethnic groups. 10.3% of the population were Hispanic or Latino.

In 2010, children under the age of 18 and 27.6 % of all households lived in 17.9 % of all households with persons at least 65 years. 57.9 % of households were family households (consisting of married couples with or without offspring or a parent with offspring ). The average size of a household was 2.12 persons and the average family size is 2.57 people.

14.7% of the population were younger than 20 years, 19.8% were 20-39 years old, 38.6 % were 40-59 years old and 26.9 % were at least 60 years old. The median age was 50 years. 53.6 % of the population were male and 46.4 % female.

The average annual income was $ 57,448, while 6.3 % of the population lived below the poverty line.

In 2000, English was the mother tongue of 86.55 % of the population spoke Spanish 10.41% and 3.04% had a different mother tongue.