Margate is located slightly more than seven miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean and is included in the metropolitan area of Miami. All of the city is contained within nine square miles that are made up of almost entirely land. In fact, less than one square mile is covered by water. In the past, before the population started to rapidly increase, most of the land was either part of the Everglades or used as farmland. Today, the city contains several golf courses and a popular waterpark named Calypso Cove.
In 1955, Margate originally became a town after the land was developed to accommodate a great number of families who were choosing to call the place home. The town was incorporated as a city in 1961. Originally founded by Jack Marqusee, the city’s name was formed by using the first three letters of his last name and adding “gate” because the city has always been known to serve as a gateway to the western part of Broward County.
The population of Margate is approaching 60,000 residents, and the average age of those residents is almost two years greater than that of the entire state. Almost a quarter of the population speaks Spanish. A little more than 60 percent of the people living within the city limits are Caucasian. More than one out of every three residents were born outside of the state. With more than 6,000 total residents per square mile, the population density is more than 20 times greater than that of Florida as a whole.
Retail, construction, accommodations, and food services are the most common industries in Margate. More than 10 percent of the residents have an occupation related to sales. The unemployment rate is less than the state average. However, a majority of the residents work outside the city limits. Only about 14 percent of the population both lives and works in the city. As the average house value has more than doubled since the year 2000, the city has become an attractive spot for investments in real estate.