Daytona Beach, Florida facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Daytona Beach, Florida
City
From top, left to right: Welcome sign when entering Daytona Beach; Daytona Beach Bandshell; Ocean Walk Shoppes; Daytona Beach Pier; Daytona International Speedway
Seal
Nicknames:  "The World's Most Famous Beach", "The Spring Break Capital of the World"
Location in Volusia County and the state of Florida
Daytona Beach, Florida Location in Florida Show map of Florida Daytona Beach, Florida Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Country	United States
State	Florida
County	Volusia
Founded	1870
Incorporated (Town of Daytona)	July 26, 1876
Incorporated (City of Daytona Beach)	1926
Government
• Type	Commission–Manager
Area
• City	68.19 sq mi (176.62 km2)
• Land	65.59 sq mi (169.89 km2)
• Water	2.60 sq mi (6.74 km2)
• Urban	190.65 sq mi (493.8 km2)
Elevation	13 ft (4 m)
Population  (2020)
• City	72,647
• Density	1,107.54/sq mi (427.62/km2)
• Urban	402,126 (104th U.S.)
• Urban density	1,893.6/sq mi (731.1/km2)
• Metro	609,939 (90th U.S.)
• CSA	3,045,707 (20th U.S.)
Time zone	UTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP Codes	32114–32126, 32198
Area code(s)	386
FIPS code	12-16525
GNIS feature ID	0281353

Daytona Beach is a coastal resort city in Volusia County, Florida, United States. Located on the East Coast of the United States, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach metropolitan area, and is a principal city of the Fun Coast region of Florida.

Daytona Beach is historically known for its beach, where motorized vehicles are permitted on some hard-packed sand beaches. Motorsports on the beach became popular, and the Daytona Beach and Road Course hosted races for over 50 years, replaced in 1959 by Daytona International Speedway. The city is the headquarters of NASCAR.

Daytona Beach hosts large groups of tourists, and notable events include Speedweeks which attracts 200,000 visitors to the Daytona 500. Other events include the NASCAR Coke Zero Sugar 400, Daytona Beach Bike Week, Biketoberfest, and the 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race.

History

The area where Daytona Beach is located was once inhabited by the indigenous Timucuan Indians who lived in fortified villages. The Timucuas were nearly exterminated by contact with Europeans through war, enslavement and disease and became extinct as a racial entity through assimilation and attrition during the 18th century. The Seminole Indians, descendants of Creek Indians from Georgia and Alabama, frequented the area prior to the Second Seminole War.

During the era of British rule of Florida between 1763 and 1783, the King's Road passed through present-day Daytona Beach. The road extended from Saint Augustine, the capital of East Florida, to Andrew Turnbull's experimental colony in New Smyrna. In 1804 Samuel Williams received a land grant of 3,000 acres (12 km²) from the Spanish Crown, which had regained Florida from the British after the American Revolutionary War. This land grant encompassed the area that would become Daytona Beach. Williams built a slave-labor-based plantation to grow cotton, rice and sugar cane. His son Samuel Hill Williams would abandon the plantation during the Second Seminole War, when the Seminoles burned it to the ground.

The area now known as the Daytona Beach Historical District was once the Orange Grove Plantation, a citrus and sugar cane plantation granted to Samuel Williams in 1787. The plantation was situated on the west bank of the tidal channel known as the Halifax River, 12 miles north of Mosquito Inlet. Williams was a British loyalist from North Carolina who fled to the Bahamas with his family until the Spanish reopened Florida to non-Spanish immigration. After his death in 1810, the plantation was run by his family until it was burned down in 1835. In 1871, Mathias Day Jr. of Mansfield, Ohio, purchased the 3,200-acre tract of the former Orange Grove Plantation. He built a hotel around which the initial section of town arose. In 1872, due to financial troubles, Day lost title to his land; nonetheless, residents decided to name the city Daytona in his honor, and incorporated the town in 1876.

In 1886, the St. Johns & Halifax River Railway arrived in Daytona. The line would be purchased in 1889 by Henry M. Flagler, who made it part of his Florida East Coast Railway. The separate towns of Daytona, Daytona Beach, Kingston, and Seabreeze merged as "Daytona Beach" in 1926, at the urging of civic leader J. B. Kahn and others. By the 1920s, it was dubbed "The World's Most Famous Beach".

Daytona's wide beach of smooth, compacted sand attracted automobile and motorcycle races beginning in 1902, as pioneers in the industry tested their inventions. It hosted land speed record attempts beginning in 1904, when William K. Vanderbilt set an unofficial record of 92.307 mph (148.554 km/h). Land speed racers from Barney Oldfield to Henry Segrave to Malcolm Campbell would visit Daytona repeatedly and make the 23 mi (37 km) beach course famous. Record attempts, including numerous fatal endeavors such as Frank Lockhart (Stutz Black Hawk, 1928) and Lee Bible (Triplex Special, 1929), would continue until Campbell's March 7, 1935 effort, which set the record at 276.816 mph (445.492 km/h) and marked the end of Daytona's land speed racing days.

On March 8, 1936, the first stock car race was held on the Daytona Beach Road Course, located in the present-day Town of Ponce Inlet. In 1958, William France Sr. and NASCAR created the Daytona International Speedway to replace the beach course. Automobiles are still permitted on most areas of the beach, at a maximum speed of 10 mph (16 km/h).

The city of Daytona Beach made national headlines when it designated the several–mile radius around Main Street on the barrier island portion of the city as a blighted area and has targeted it for redevelopment by private developers. This follows the Supreme Court decision of the eminent domain case in Kelo v. City of New London, which upheld the right of municipalities to use eminent domain to take private property for redevelopment by private entities.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 64.93 sq mi (168 km²). of which 58.68 sq mi (152 km²) is land and 6.25 sq mi (16 km²) is water, with water thus comprising 9.6% of the total area.

The city of Daytona Beach is split in two by the Halifax River lagoon, part of the Intracoastal Waterway, and sits on the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered on the north by Holly Hill and Ormond Beach and on the south by Daytona Beach Shores, South Daytona and Port Orange.

Notable weather events that have caused damage or injury in Daytona Beach include Hurricane Donna in 1960, the 1998 Kissimmee tornado outbreak, and Hurricane Charley in 2004. In 1992, a 28-mile (45 km) long rogue wave with a 9 feet (2.7 m) high crest hit Daytona Beach, causing property damage and 75 reported injuries.

Climate

Daytona Beach has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa), which is typical of the Gulf and South Atlantic states. As is typical of much of Florida, there are two seasons in Daytona Beach; the warmer, wetter season (late May through October) and the cooler and drier season (November through April).

In summer, temperatures are relatively stable and there is an average of only 8 days annually with a maximum at or above 95 °F (35 °C); the last 100 °F (38 °C) reading was seen on August 2, 1999. The Bermuda High pumps hot and unstable tropical air from the Bahamas and Gulf of Mexico, resulting in daily, but brief thundershowers. This results in the months of June through September accounting for a majority of the average annual rainfall of 51.25 in (1,302 mm).

In winter, Daytona Beach has weather conditions typical of other cities on the Florida peninsula. On average, the coolest month is January, with a normal monthly mean temperature of 58.8 °F (14.9 °C). It is the only month where the average high temperature falls below 70.0 °F (21.1 °C). Occasional cold fronts can bring freezes, which from 1991 to 2020 were seen on an average of 3.0 nights annually; however, minima below 25 °F (−4 °C) are very rare, and were last seen on December 28, 2010. Like much of Florida, Daytona Beach often can be very dry in late winter and early spring, and brush fires and water restrictions can be an issue.

Official record temperatures range from 15 °F (−9 °C) on January 21, 1985, up to 102 °F (39 °C) on July 15, 1981, and June 24, 1944; the record cold daily maximum is 33 °F (1 °C) on Christmas day 1983, while, conversely, the record warm daily minimum is 82 °F (28 °C) on September 1 and 10–11, 2008 and August 25, 2020. Annual rainfall has ranged from 31.36 in (797 mm) in 2006 and 1956, up to 79.29 in (2,014 mm) in 1953. The most rainfall to have occurred in a calendar day was 12.85 in (326 mm) on October 10, 1924, which contributed to 24.82 in (630 mm) of rain that fell that month, the most of any calendar month.

Climate data for Daytona Beach
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average sea temperature °F (°C)	61.0 (16.1)	59.0 (15.0)	64.9 (18.3)	71.4 (21.9)	76.5 (24.7)	79.5 (26.4)	80.1 (26.7)	80.4 (26.9)	82.6 (28.1)	77.5 (25.3)	71.1 (21.7)	64.9 (18.3)	72.4 (22.5)
Mean daily daylight hours	11.0	11.0	12.0	13.0	14.0	14.0	14.0	13.0	12.0	11.0	11.0	10.0	12.2
Average Ultraviolet index	4	6	8	10	10	11	11	10	9	7	5	4	7.9
Source #1: NOAA Coastal Water Temperature Guide
Source #2: Weather Atlas

Demographics

Historical population
Census	Pop.		%±
1910	331		—
1920	825		149.2%
1930	16,598		1,911.9%
1940	22,584		36.1%
1950	30,167		33.6%
1960	37,395		24.0%
1970	45,327		21.2%
1980	54,176		19.5%
1990	61,921		14.3%
2000	64,112		3.5%
2010	61,005		−4.8%
2020	72,647		19.1%
U.S. Decennial Census

2010 and 2020 census

Daytona Beach racial composition
(Hispanics excluded from racial categories)
(NH = Non-Hispanic)

Race	Pop 2010	Pop 2020	% 2010	% 2020
White (NH)	33,179	37,355	54.39%	51.42%
Black or African American (NH)	21,254	22,945	34.84%	31.58%
Native American or Alaska Native (NH)	185	169	0.30%	0.23%
Asian (NH)	1,354	1,902	2.22%	2.62%
Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian (NH)	21	36	0.03%	0.05%
Some other race (NH)	144	468	0.24%	0.64%
Two or more races/Multiracial (NH)	1,113	3,003	1.82%	4.13%
Hispanic or Latino (any race)	3,755	6,769	6.16%	9.32%
Total	61,005	72,647

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 72,647 people, 28,763 households, and 14,607 families residing in the city.

As of the 2010 United States census, there were 61,005 people, 25,093 households, and 12,234 families residing in the city.

Languages

As of 2000, English spoken as a first language accounted for 90.37% of all residents, and 9.62% spoke other languages as their first language. The majority were Spanish speakers who made up 4.01% of the population; French was the third most spoken language, which made up 0.90%; German was at 0.86%; and Arabic was at 0.66% of the population.

Economy

Tourism is a major part of the Daytona Beach economy, with over 8 million visitors in 2004. Other sources of revenue include manufacturing, and Daytona Beach has industrial sites within an enterprise zone and sites within a foreign trade zone adjacent to Daytona Beach International Airport.

Companies and organizations that have their corporate headquarters or a major presence in the area include:

• Brown & Brown
• Halifax Health
• Halifax Media Group
• International Speedway Corporation
• Gambro-Renal Products
• Ladies Professional Golf Association
• NASCAR
• Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Shopping

• Volusia Mall, the largest shopping mall in Daytona Beach
• Ocean Walk Shoppes, an open-air shopping center
• Tanger Outlets, a 380,000 sq ft (35,000 m²) retail center

Top employers

According to the City's 2019 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:

#	Employer	# of Employees
1	Volusia County School District	7,623
2	Halifax Health	4,050
3	Volusia County, Florida	3,408
4	AdventHealth Daytona Beach	2,288
5	Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University	2,003
6	Daytona State College	1,250
7	The City of Daytona Beach, Florida	921
8	Bethune Cookman University	843
9	Florida Hospital Healthcare Partner	697
10	SMA Healthcare	677

Arts and culture

The Museum of Arts and Sciences is the primary cultural facility for Daytona Beach and Volusia County. Other museums located in the city include the Southeast Museum of Photography and the Halifax Historical Museum. The Museum of Arts and Sciences is actually a collection of museums and galleries and includes the Klancke Environmental Complex, the Cuban Museum, Root Family Museum featuring one of the largest Coca-Cola collections in the world, the Dow American Gallery and the Bouchelle Center for Decorative Arts which together form what is probably one of the finest collections of furniture and decorative arts in the Southeast. It also includes the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art, which houses the largest collection of Florida art in the world. There are also changing exhibitions and a children's science center opened in 2008. Since 1952, the non-profit Daytona Beach Symphony Society has sponsored performances by U.S. and international orchestras, opera and dance companies each season at the Peabody Auditorium.

Special events

The city attracts over 8 million tourists each year. Special events that draw visitors to Daytona Beach include:

• Speedweeks (Daytona 500 NASCAR race, Rolex 24 sports car race, and others)
• Coke Zero Sugar 400, NASCAR race held on the first Saturday of July (formerly called the Pepsi 400 and the Firecracker 400)
• Daytona Beach Bike Week Daytona 200 motorcycle races, bike shows and biker reunion in March
• Spring break (date varies, usually the first and second week of March)

During motorcycle events (Bike Week and Biketoberfest), several hundred thousand bikers from all over the world visit the greater Daytona Beach area. The city is also often associated with spring break, though the efforts of the local government to discourage rowdiness, combined with the rise of other spring break destinations, have affected Daytona's preeminence as a spring break destination. It is the destination of Dayton 2 Daytona, an annual event that draws over 3,000 University of Dayton college students since 1977.

National Historic Places

Other points of interest

Sports

Motorsports

Annual races at Daytona International Speedway include 24 Hours of Daytona and Daytona 500.

Baseball

The Daytona Tortugas, a minor league baseball team of the Low-A Southeast, play at Jackie Robinson Ballpark. Established in 1993, the team has six championships.

Parks and recreation

Beaches and parks

Daytona Beach has over 23 miles (37 km) of public beaches, and more than ten waterfront parks. Cars can be driven on some of the beaches.

Notable golf courses include Daytona Beach Golf Course, established in 1922, and LPGA International.

Education

Primary and secondary schooling

Public primary and secondary education is handled by Volusia County Schools. Daytona Beach has two public traditional high schools, two middle schools and six elementary schools. Some of the larger private schools include Father Lopez Catholic High School.

Elementary schools

• Beachside Elementary
• Champion Elementary
• Palm Terrace Elementary
• R.J. Longstreet Elementary
• Turie T. Small Elementary
• Westside Elementary

Middle schools

• Campbell Middle School
• David C. Hinson Middle School

High schools

• Mainland High School
• Seabreeze High School

Colleges and universities

• Bethune–Cookman University
• Daytona State College
• Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University
• University of Central Florida, Daytona Beach Campus

Vocational schools

• The Airline Academy – Offers flight training for pilots and other airline professionals.
• Keiser College
• Phoenix East Aviation – Offers flight training for pilots.
• WyoTech (formerly AMI) motorcycle repair, and marine repair training.

Media

Newspapers

• The Daytona Beach News-Journal – Daily newspaper covering the Greater Daytona Beach Area.
• Hometown News – Weekly newspaper covering the Greater Daytona Beach Area.
• East Coast Current – Community Newspaper covering Volusia County. www.ECCurrent.com
• Orlando Sentinel – Newspaper and news site based in Orlando with a bureau covering Daytona Beach and Volusia County.
• The Avion Newspaper – Student college publication of Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach.
• The Daytona Times – Black newspaper covering Daytona Beach
• HeadlineSurfer.com – Internet-only newspaper covering the Greater Daytona Beach-Orlando Area.

Radio

AM

• WNDB, 1150 AM, Daytona Beach, News/Talk/Sports
• WROD, 1340 AM, Daytona Beach, Classic rock
• WMFJ, 1450 AM, Daytona Beach, Religious
• WDJZ, 1590 AM, Daytona Beach, Adult Contemporary/Newstalk

FM

• WHOG-FM, 95.7 FM, Ormond Beach, Classic rock
• WCFB, 94.5 FM, Daytona Beach, Urban Adult Contemporary
• WQMP, 101.9 FM, Daytona Beach, Modern rock
• WIKD-LP, 102.5 FM, Daytona Beach, Campus Radio of Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University
• W231CN, 94.1 FM, Daytona Beach, Urban Contemporary "HOT 94.1"

Television

• WESH, Channel 2, digital channel 11, NBC
• WDSC-TV, Channel 15, digital channel 24, Educational independent
• Central Florida News 13, Bright House Networks cable channel 13

Infrastructure

Law enforcement

Law enforcement in Daytona Beach is provided by the 241-member Daytona Beach Police Department (DBPD) headed by police chief Craig Capri. In a unique and controversial program to help fund the Police Explorer program, run by a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of America, T-shirts with the words Scumbag Eradication Team: Not in Our Town are sold at the police headquarters.

The T-shirts contain a caricature of Retired Chief Chitwood standing next to a toilet bowl with the legs of multiple individuals sticking out. The T-shirt has been cited in at least one lawsuit against the DBPD alleging police brutality, the lawyer in the case in which the client sustained broken ribs and a fractured eye socket during an arrest for an open container of beer, claims the T-shirt shows the DBPD condones violence.

The Volusia County Sheriff's office, headed by Mike Chitwood is a countywide law enforcement agency with 446 sworn positions, 438 civilian employees, 300 volunteers and an annual operating budget of $73 million that has jurisdiction in unincorporated areas of Volusia County and provides additional law enforcement support to Daytona Beach during such events as the Daytona 500 and aids in joint investigations of certain crimes.

The Volusia County Beach Patrol provides law enforcement as well as EMT services along Volusia County beaches including the beaches in the city of Daytona Beach.

Healthcare

Healthcare in Daytona Beach is dominated by Halifax Health (formerly known as Halifax Hospital). The Halifax Hospital Taxing District was established in 1927 by an Act of the Florida Legislature as a public hospital district. There are dozens of individual practitioners and Professional Associations (PA) in the Daytona Beach area.

Utilities

Basic utilities in Daytona Beach (water and sewer) are provided by the City Government.

• Florida Power & Light is Daytona Beach's local electric power provider.
• TECO/People's Gas is Daytona Beach's natural gas provider. [1]
• Spectrum and AT&T networks are Daytona Beach's local cable providers.
• AT&T (formerly BellSouth) is Daytona Beach's local phone provider.

The city has a successful recycling program with separate pickups for garbage, yard waste and recycling. Collection is provided by several private companies under contract to Volusia County, Florida.

Transportation

Airports

Passenger airline services are located at Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB), which is centrally located within the city adjacent to Daytona International Speedway. The site was first used as an airport with terminals being constructed in 1952 and 1958. The present facility was constructed in 1992 at the cost of $46 million, and includes both a domestic terminal and an International terminal. Despite the new facilities, DAB has found difficulty in attracting and retaining carriers; Continental Airlines, AirTran Airways, and United Airlines discontinued flights to Daytona in 2007 and 2008. LTU & American Airlines also serviced Daytona Beach during the 1980s and 1990s, both of which ended all flights in 1994 & 1997.

Current passenger airlines serving DAB include Delta Air Lines (with nonstop service to Atlanta) and American Airlines (with non-stop service to Charlotte). Both carriers offer connecting service from those cities to destinations worldwide. International flights from DAB fly to destinations in the Bahamas through air taxi and charter services Airgate Aviation and IslandPass; non-stop flights are available from DAB to Marsh Harbour, Treasure Cay, and North Eleuthera. Sunwing Airlines also operates seasonal flights from Toronto Pearson International Airport. DAB is also heavily used for general aviation, largely due to Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University, whose campus is located at the airport.

Larger airports nearby are Orlando International Airport and Jacksonville International Airport, each of which is approximately 90 minutes away.

Buses

• Daytona Beach is served by Greyhound Bus Lines, which has a terminal located at 138 South Ridgewood Avenue (US 1). The Greyhound routes from Daytona Beach connect with hubs in Jacksonville and Orlando.
• Votran is the local bus service provided by Volusia County.

Automobiles

Daytona Beach is easily accessible by I-95 that runs north and south and I-4 connecting Daytona Beach with Orlando and Tampa. US 1 (Ridgewood Avenue) also passes north–south through Daytona Beach. US 92 (International Speedway Boulevard) runs east–west through Daytona Beach. SR A1A is a scenic north–south route along the beach.

The Volusia County Parking Garage is located at 701 Earl Street at North Atlantic Avenue (SR A1A). The garage is strategically located, next to the Ocean Center, Daytona Lagoon, and across the street from the Hilton Hotel and Ocean Walk Shoppes. Over one thousand parking spaces are available inside the garage, which also houses an intermodal transfer station for VoTran.

Bridges

There are four bridges over the Halifax River (and Intracoastal Waterway) at Daytona Beach. They include (starting from furthest downstream) the Veterans Memorial Bridge (which carries CR 4050 traffic), the Broadway Bridge (which carries US 92 traffic), the Main Street Bridge (which carries CR 4040 traffic), and the Seabreeze Bridge (which carries SR 430 traffic). All four bridges charge no toll to traffic. In June, 2016, the Veterans Memorial Bridge was closed as part of a three-year project to demolish the drawbridge and replace it with a high span bridge.

Rail

Passenger railroad service to Daytona Beach was established no later than 1889 by the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railway, predecessor of the Florida East Coast Railroad (FEC). Long-distance trains such as the City of Miami and the South Wind (both from Chicago), East Coast Champion (from New York City) and the Havana Special (New York City) made stops at Daytona Beach. Long distance routes were diverted to Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and Seaboard Air Line Railroad routes on the Florida interior south of the Jacksonville Union Station, following the beginning of a labor dispute on the FEC in 1963. Passenger trains continued calling at Daytona Beach until July 31, 1968, when the FEC terminated passenger operations system-wide. The FEC currently operates freight trains through Daytona Beach.

Daytona Beach is served by Amtrak by way of an Amtrak Thruway connection between the beachside and Amtrak's DeLand station, 28 miles (45 km) to the west. There, the service connects northbound with train 92, the Silver Star, and train 98, the Silver Meteor. Southbound connections from Daytona Beach are limited to Silver Meteor southbound train 97. The DeLand – Daytona Beach service is Amtrak's only Florida Amtrak Thruway route provided by a taxi-cab, rather than a bus.

Notable people

In popular culture

Novels set in Daytona Beach include:

• Day Number 142 (1974) by Edgar A. Anderson
• Last Cruise of the Nightwatch (1956) by Howard Broomfield
• Kick of the Wheel (1957) by Stewart Sterling

There have been a number of movies based on Daytona Beach, usually with a racing theme. The most recent example was the 1990 hit Days of Thunder, parts of which were filmed in Daytona Beach and nearby DeLand. Chris Rea wrote the song "Daytona" which was in his 1989 album The Road to Hell. Suzi Quatro's song "Daytona Demon" is often believed to refer to the city. Also, about half of the video for the song "Steal My Sunshine" by Len was filmed at Daytona Beach.

Daytona Beach was also the destination of a group of plagued teenagers in the movie Final Destination 2.

Daytona Beach was also one of the settings in the 2008 film Marley & Me.

Daytona Beach was the setting of the Season 2 finale of the web series The Most Popular Girls in School.

See also

In Spanish: Daytona Beach para niños