FL and GA have grown phenomenally in the past decades. FL had 6.7M in 1970 [0] and 21.8M in 2020 [1].

It’s not as big as California, but has had substantial growth.

Georgia is similar.

[0] https://fcit.usf.edu/florida/docs/c/census/1970.htm [1] https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/FL