Rank

1272of 3,144

Monroe, Florida

Score 6.45 / 10· population 80,614

Monroe County is the Florida Keys, more than 100 miles of coral islands linked by the 113-mile Overseas Highway and its 42 bridges, ending at Key West. Offshore is North America's only coral barrier reef, inside a national marine sanctuary. Hurricane Irma hit Cudjoe Key as a Category 4 storm in September 2017, pushing water 5 to 8 feet above ground in the Lower Keys, and FEMA estimated a quarter of the Keys' buildings were destroyed.

Sources
  • The Florida Keys are a chain of coral islands stretching more than 100 miles visitfloridakeys.com
  • The Overseas Highway is 113 miles long with 42 bridges visitfloridakeys.com
  • Key West is at the end of the road visitfloridakeys.com
  • The waters of the Florida Keys are within Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary floridakeys.noaa.gov
  • The sanctuary page calls the reef North America's only coral barrier reef floridakeys.noaa.gov
  • Hurricane Irma made landfall near Cudjoe Key in the lower Florida Keys on 10 September 2017 as a category 4 hurricane nhc.noaa.gov
  • Storm surge and tide produced maximum inundation of 5 to 8 ft above ground level in portions of the Lower Florida Keys from Cudjoe Key east to Big Pine Key and Bahia Honda Key nhc.noaa.gov
  • FEMA estimates cited in the NHC report indicate 25% of buildings in the Keys were destroyed by Irma nhc.noaa.gov

v4 — beta, 30 October 2026, sourced values

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Eleven factors

Government behavior

  1. Fraser Institute state ranking (state)7.6
  2. 2A (state)8.0
  3. GOP + LP vote for President5.9
  4. Sales tax3.2
  5. Property tax7.4

Environment

  1. Air quality6.5
  2. Floods / hurricanes0.1

Private behavior

  1. Homicide rate8.2
  2. Life expectancy10.0
  3. Government employees5.1
  4. Single-parent households4.9

Neighbors