Richmond West is located at. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of, of which, of it is land and of it is water.
History
Richmond West has its origins as an early 1900s settlement named Eureka. In 1907, the one-room Eureka Schoolhouse was built at the corner of S.W. 147th Avenue and S.W. 184th Street. It closed in 1916 when it and six other area one-room schoolhouses were consolidated into the Redland Farm Life School four miles to the south. In 1927, the Seaboard Air Line Railway came through, building a depot in the settlement, now known as Richmond. Although the depot has long since been demolished, the railroad line, now owned by Seaboard successor CSX, remains. The 1945 Homestead hurricane caused an estimated $50,000,000-worth of damage, impacting the area. Nearly half of the financial loss happened at the neighboring Richmond Naval Air Station, where winds ignited a fire at three hangars, destroying 25 blimps, 366 planes, and 150 automobiles. in 1992. The area remained mostly agricultural until the mid-1980s, when several subdevelopments and the Dadeland Mobile Home Park were built south of S.W. 152nd Street. In August 1992, Hurricane Andrew destroyed the mobile home park and devastated the surrounding area. Many of the homes and businesses in the area were completely destroyed. In subsequent years, the area was gradually rebuilt, and development proceeded southward to the community's southern border at Eureka Drive.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 28,082 people, 7,833 households, and 7,175 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 6,720.5 people per square mile. There were 8,188 housing units at an average density of 1,959.5/sq mi. The racial makeup of the CDP was 78.33% White 8.51% African American, 0.21% Native American, 2.29% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 6.49% from other races, and 4.10% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 70.02% of the population. There were 7,833 households out of which 59.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 75.7% were married couplesliving together, 11.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 8.4% were non-families. 4.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 0.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.59 and the average family size was 3.69. In the CDP, the population was spread out with 32.9% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 38.5% from 25 to 44, 16.0% from 45 to 64, and 5.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.2 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $59,608, and the median income for a family was $59,551. Males had a median income of $36,589 versus $26,896 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $18,544. About 3.9% of families and 5.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.7% of those under age 18 and 5.0% of those age 65 or over. As of 2000, speakers of Spanish as a first language accounted for 73.23% of residents, while English made up 24.48%, and French as a mother tongue was at 1.66% of the population. As of 2000, Richmond West had the seventeenth-highest percentage of Cuban residents in the US, with 29.30% of the population. Richmond West had the 130th-highest percentage of Puerto Rican residents in the US, at 7.28% of the population, and the twenty-first-highest percentage of Colombian residents in the US, at 5.13% of its population. Richmond West also had the seventh-most Nicaraguan residents in the US, at 4.19%, while it had the fifty-fourth-highest percentage of Dominican residents, at 2.48% of all residents. Richmond West's Jamaican community had the forty-first-highest percentage of residents, which was at 3.20%, while Richmond West's Peruvian residents had the twenty-eighth-highest percentage in the US, which made up 1.80% It is also home to the twelfth-highest percentage of Venezuelan residents in the US, at 1.36% of the population.
