The
Florida Keys are an archipelago of about 1700
islands in the southeast United
States. They begin at the southeastern tip
of the Florida peninsula, about 15 miles (24 km)
south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest
and then westward to Key West, the westernmost
of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited
Dry Tortugas. The islands lie along the Florida
Straits, dividing the Atlantic Ocean to the east
from the Gulf of Mexico to the west, and defining
one edge of Florida Bay. At the nearest point,
the southern tip of Key West is just 90 miles
(140 km) from Cuba. The Florida Keys are between
about 23.5 and 25.5 degrees North latitude, in
the subtropics. The climate of the Keys however,
is defined as tropical according to Köppen
climate classification. More than 95 percent of
the land area lies in Monroe County, but a small
portion extends northeast into Miami-Dade County,
primarily in the city of Islandia, Florida. The
total land area is 137.3 square miles (356 km2).
As of the 2000 census the population was 79,535,
with an average density of 579.27 per square mile
(223.66 /km2), although much of the population
is concentrated in a few areas of much higher
density, such as the city of Key West, which has
32% of the entire population of the Keys.
The city of Key West is the county seat of Monroe
County, which consists of a section on the mainland
which is almost entirely in Everglades National
Park, and the Keys islands from Key Largo to the
Dry Tortugas.
