page_title: Florida
section_title: Religion
hierarchical_section_title: Florida / Demographics / Religion
caption_attribution_description: English: The Church of the Little Flower, June 2010.
context_page_description: Florida is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. With a population of over 21 million, Florida is the third-most populous and the 22nd-most extensive of the 50 United States. The state is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Straits of Florida. The state's capital is Tallahassee and its most populous municipality is Jacksonville. The Miami metropolitan area, with a population of almost 6.2 million, is the most populous urban area in Florida and the seventh-most populous in the United States. Other urban areas in the state with a population of more than one million are Tampa Bay, Orlando, and Jacksonville. Florida's $1.0 trillion economy is the fourth-largest of any U.S. state, and if it were a country, Florida would be the 16th-largest economy in the world.
  The first European contact was made in 1513 by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, who called it la Florida upon landing there. At various points in its colonial history, Florida was administered by Spain and Great Britain. Florida was admitted as the 27th state on March 3, 1845.
context_section_description: Florida is mostly Christian, although there is a large irreligious and relatively significant Jewish community. Protestants account for almost half of the population, but the Catholic Church is the largest single denomination in the state mainly due to its large Hispanic population and other groups like Haitians. Protestants are very diverse, although Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals and nondenominational Protestants are the largest groups. There is also a sizable Jewish community in South Florida. This is the largest Jewish population in the southern U.S. and the third-largest in the U.S. behind those of New York and California.
  In 2010, the three largest denominations in Florida were the Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the United Methodist Church.
  The Pew Research Center survey in 2014 gave the following religious makeup of Florida:
caption: Church of the Little Flower (Coral Gables, Florida)
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