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Demographics of Key Largo, FL
Affluence Level in Key Largo, FL
An upper-middle-class area. Household wealth, education levels, and homeownership run ahead of national benchmarks.
People of Key Largo, FL
Key Largo’s 12,069 residents form a predominantly white, politically moderate-to-conservative community with a strong Hispanic minority and a very small Black and Indian presence. The population is older and more educated than the Florida average, with 37.6% holding a college degree, and the foreign-born share sits at just 5.9% — well below the state’s 21% figure. The island’s identity is shaped by its marine-tourism economy, a mix of longtime fishing families and newer retirees, and a distinct lack of the dense suburban sprawl found farther north in Miami-Dade County.
How the city was settled and grew
Key Largo’s human history is almost entirely a 20th-century story. Before the Overseas Railroad reached the island in 1908, the population consisted of a handful of Bahamian and Anglo settlers living off fishing, sponging, and small-scale farming. The railroad, completed by Henry Flagler, opened the island to seasonal tourism and a trickle of permanent residents, but the real settlement wave came after the Overseas Highway (U.S. 1) was completed in 1938. The first concentrated neighborhoods appeared along the bayside — Ocean Reef Club (founded in the 1950s as a private fishing club) and Port Largo (a canal-front subdivision platted in the 1960s) — drawing affluent anglers and second-home buyers from the Northeast and Midwest. Meanwhile, the Rock Harbor area, near the island’s northern end, became a working-class enclave for Bahamian-descended families and fishing guides. The population remained small — under 2,000 as late as 1960 — and overwhelmingly white, with a tiny Bahamian-origin Black community concentrated around the Stillwright Point area.
Modern era (post-1965)
The 1965 Hart-Cellar Act had little direct effect on Key Largo; the island’s foreign-born share today (5.9%) is roughly half the national average. Instead, the post-1965 story is one of domestic in-migration from two directions: retirees and remote workers from the Northeast and Midwest, and Hispanic families moving up the Keys from Miami-Dade County. The Hispanic share — now 29.2% — is overwhelmingly Cuban-American and Puerto Rican, drawn by service-sector jobs in tourism, construction, and marine trades. These families settled primarily in the Ocean Shores subdivision (a mid-1970s development of modest single-family homes) and along the Mile Marker 100 corridor, where older motels were converted into apartment complexes. The white population (66.5%) remains the majority but has aged significantly: the median age is 52, compared to 42 statewide. The Black population (1.4%) is largely concentrated in the historic Stillwright Point area, though many younger Black residents have left for Monroe County’s mainland or for larger cities. The East/Southeast Asian population is effectively zero (0.0%), and the Indian-subcontinent population is negligible (0.3%), making Key Largo one of the least diverse communities in South Florida by Asian and Indian metrics.
The future
Key Largo’s population is projected to grow slowly — perhaps 5-8% over the next decade — constrained by limited developable land, strict Monroe County growth-management laws, and rising home prices. The Hispanic share is likely to continue increasing, driven by natural increase and continued migration from Miami-Dade, but the pace will be slower than in mainland Florida because of the high cost of housing. The white population will continue to age in place, with younger white families priced out by vacation-rental demand. The Black population is expected to remain small and may shrink further as older residents pass away and younger ones leave for more affordable areas. The island is not tribalizing into distinct ethnic enclaves — neighborhoods like Ocean Shores and Port Largo are already mixed — but it is becoming more economically stratified, with the bayside and oceanfront areas reserved for the wealthy and the U.S. 1 corridor absorbing the workforce.
For a conservative-leaning mover, Key Largo offers a stable, low-crime, family-oriented environment with a strong sense of local identity and minimal demographic churn. The population is not diversifying rapidly, and the political culture — shaped by Monroe County’s Republican lean — is likely to remain center-right. The trade-off is high housing costs, limited job diversity outside tourism and marine trades, and a community that skews older and whiter than the rest of South Florida. It is a place for those who value continuity over change.
* Values derived from national, state, county, city and local statistics and may differ in a specific area. Last updated: 2026-05-13T16:56:27.000Z
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