Let's kick things off with Cape Coral's demographics – it is the most populous city located between Tampa and Miami and as of April 9th, 2009, it has become the 9th largest city in Florida as far as the population is concerned. It is the 2nd largest city in the state, geographically speaking. More than 60% of Cape's population has an age between 15 and 62 and residents under 25 outnumber the residents that are over 65 years old.
SW Florida's 18-24 age group is growing at a quicker rate in comparison with the entire state of Florida and the United States. The city's racial makeup is: 88.3% white; 3.7% African American; 0.3% Native American; 1.3% Asian / Pacific Islander; 4.1% from other races and 2.3% from other two races. 14.1% of the population is Hispanic and the diversity index is 40.8.
Two years ago, Cape Coral's population consisted of 21.9% people that were under the age of 18; 7.4% of the population was aged from 18 to 24; 29% from the inhabitants had an age situated between 45 to 64, while 17.9% of the population was 65 years of age or older than that. The median age at that time was 42.7 years and almost 30% of the households had children that were under the age of 18 living with them. In 2009, the average household size was 2.51 and the average family size was 2.89.
The projections for the year 2014 estimate a population of 203,500 people, almost 81,000 households and more than 58,000 families residing in the city.
Let's move on to the city's infrastructure – the Interstate 75 passes within 10 miles of the city and connects northward to Tampa and on the Midwestern states and southeastward to Miami / Fort Lauderdale. The city borders on the US Highway 41 and has about 1,100 miles of roadways.
The connection to Fort Myers is made via two bridges. The first one measures 3,400 feet long and is called Cape Coral Bridge, connecting the Cape Coral Parkway to the College Parkway, located in Fort Myers. The second bridge, named Midpoint Memorial Bridge, was built for connecting Veterans Parkway to the Colonial Boulevard.
As far as the public transportation is concerned, the transit services are provided by LeeTran which operates 18 fixed-route bus services, including six within the city. These buses operate from Monday until Saturday, between 5 AM and 9.45 PM.
The city is located 13 miles from the Southwest Florida International Airport which services about 8 million passengers per year. In 2005, the airport opened up the Midfield Terminal Complex, with three concourses and 28 gates. Last year, 18 national and 2 international airlines, along with two major cargo companies served the airport.
Cape Coral operates water and sewer systems from the city and the current plans are to increase the service area for water, sewer and irrigation water services. Cape uses Reserve Osmosis plants in order to produce drinking water from brackish groundwater by removing impurities and salt. The electrical power is provided by LCEC which is a not-for-profit electric distribution cooperative.
Martin Wynn
