Pompano Beach ( ) is a city in Broward County, Florida. It is located along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, just north of Fort Lauderdale. The nearby Hillsboro Inlet forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. It is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to 6.14 million people in 2020. As of the 2020 census, the population was 112,046, making it the sixth-largest city in Broward County, the ninth-largest city in the South Florida metropolitan area, and the 20th-largest city in Florida.
Pompano Beach Airpark, located within the city, is the home of the Goodyear Blimp Spirit of Innovation.
History
Its name is derived from the Florida Pompano (Trachinotus carolinus), a fish found off the Atlantic coast.
There had been scattered settlers in the area since at least the mid-1880s, but the first documented permanent residents of the Pompano area were George Butler and Frank Sheen and their families, who arrived in 1896 as railway employees. The first train arrived in the small Pompano settlement on February 22, 1896. It is said that Sheen gave the community its name after jotting down on his survey of the area the name of the fish he had for dinner. The coming of the railroad led to development farther west from the coast. In 1906, Pompano became the southernmost settlement in newly created Palm Beach County. That year, the Hillsboro Lighthouse was completed on the beach.
On July 3, 1908, a new municipality was incorporated in what was then Dade County: the Town of Pompano. John R. Mizell was elected the first mayor. In 1915, Broward County was established, with a northern boundary at the Hillsboro Canal. Thus, within eight years, Pompano had been in three counties. Pompano Beach experienced significant growth during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. In 1940, the U.S. Supreme Court disallowed forced confessions in Chambers v. Florida, a dispute stemming from a murder in Pompano Beach.
Following the population boom due to World War II, in 1947, the City of Pompano merged with the newly formed municipality on the beach and became the City of Pompano Beach. In 1950, the population of the city reached 5,682. Like most of southeast Florida, Pompano Beach experienced great growth in the late 20th century as many people moved there from northern parts of the United States. A substantial seasonal population also spends its winters in the area. The city of Pompano Beach celebrated its centennial in 2008.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 5.54%, is water.
A 2017 study showed 73,000 residents living within FEMA's coastal floodplain.
Pompano Beach is in northeastern Broward County along the Atlantic Ocean. It includes about of beachfront, extending from the intersection of State Road A1A and Terra Mar Drive to the Hillsboro Inlet. The city is bounded by the following municipalities:
On its northeast: Hillsboro Beach Lighthouse Point
On its north: Deerfield Beach
On its west: Coconut Creek
On its southwest: Margate North Lauderdale
On its south: Fort Lauderdale
On its southeast: Lauderdale-by-the-Sea
Climate
Pompano Beach has a tropical monsoon climate (Am) with hot, humid summers and warm winters.
Neighborhoods
These are the neighborhoods and communities that are officially recognized by the City of Pompano Beach.
Demographics
As of 2010, Italian-Americans made up 8.5% of the population, forming the second largest ancestry group in the city.
As of 2010, before annexation of other areas, Pompano Beach has the highest concentration of residents of Haitian ancestry in the country, at 9.3% of the population. while it had the highest percentage of Brazilians in the US, at 2.67%.
In 2000, the median income for a household in the city was $36,073, and the median income for a family was $44,195. Males had a median income of $31,162 versus $26,870 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,938. About 13.1% of families and 17.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 30.1% of those under age 18 and 9.4% of those age 65 or over.
As of 2000, before many of the unincorporated areas were annexed to the city, those who spoke only English were 76.4% of the population, while those who spoke Spanish as a mother tongue were 9.3%, while French Creole (Haitian Creole) was at 6.2%, French at 2.4%, Portuguese 1.5%, German was 1.0%, and Italian as a first language made up 0.9% of the population.