West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is one of the three main cities in South Florida. The population was 100,343 (revised) at the 2010 census. The University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) estimates a 2016 population of 108,896, a 7.9% increase from 2010. It is the oldest municipality in the Miami metropolitan area, having been incorporated as a city two years before Miami in November 1894. Although West Palm Beach is located approximately 68mi north of Downtown Miami, it is still considered a principal city within the Miami metropolitan area, due to the solid urbanization between both cities. The estimated population of the Miami metropolitan area, which includes all of Palm Beach County, was 6,012,331 people at the 2015 census.HistoryThe beginning of the historic period in south Florida is marked by Juan Ponce de León's first contact with native people in 1513. Europeans found a thriving native population, which they categorized into separate tribes: the Mayaimi in the Lake Okeechobee Basin and the Jaega and Ais people in the East Okeechobee area and on the east coast north of the Tequesta. When the Spanish arrived, there were perhaps about 20,000 Native Americans in south Florida. By 1763, when the English gained control of Florida, the native peoples had all but been wiped out through war, enslavement, or European diseases.
