Cape Coral - Fort Myers Hispanic population booms

The Cape Coral - Fort Myers, Fla., Metropolitan Statistical Area saw a 55 percent increase in its Hispanic population between 2000 and 2004 -- the highest increase during that timeframe in the nation, according to the Brookings Institution's report released in March 2006. Cape Coral is the county's largest city.

In Lee County public schools, Hispanic children comprised 62 percent of the enrollment growth between the start of the past school year and the start of this one. A quarter of the district's students are Hispanic.

At Florida Gulf Coast University in Estero, Hispanic enrollment has grown from 166 students at the university's opening in 1997 to 664 at the beginning of this school year. Hispanic students now represent just over 9 percent of total enrollment.

Edison College, which has several campuses in the three-county region here, created a Multicultural Task Force in 2003 to help the college better embrace its mix of students. Hispanic student representation jumped 43 percent between the 1998-99 and 2004-05 school years. Black and Asian enrollment increased, while the percentage of white students is on the decline.

The Brookings report, "Diversity Spreads Out: Metropolitan Shifts in Hispanic, Asian, and Black Populations Since 2000," was authored by Visiting Fellow William H. Frey.