Mleeja |
08-12-2022 03:05 PM |
I had a “friend” who made a similar comment on a Facebook posting. (I have also heard that Scooter the DJ uses this line in his “banter”.) Like all the others, I am tired of hearing this crap. Below is a portion of my reply to the Facebook post. The data is 2020 data. I don’t think much has changed.
The other comment you made in in the post was “What a hotbed of criminality – not to say the STD capital of the World”. I am sure you threw this statement this in because you are just being your sarcastic self. When I challenged you that the STD comment as being an urban legend, you replied “The Villages has its own STD clinic. (It doesn’t. There is a clinic in Wildwood.) Check the State Dept. of Health website for the statistics.” I did. The findings are interesting.
Before I get into the results from the website, I want to give a bit of background on The Villages for the uninitiated. The Villages is an age restricted unincorporated community. The current population is approaching 150,000. It is not a town; it is not a city. It is a community that spans portions of Lake County, Marion County and Sumter County. The bulk of The Villages (~90%) is in Sumter County. Parts of The Villages reside in the towns of Lady Lake, Fruitland Park (both Lake County) and Wildwood (Sumter County). All this really means is those residents also pay city property taxes as well as county property taxes. Surrounding The Villages are the communities mentioned above plus other small communities. The residents of the surrounding communities come to The Villages for their medical needs, shopping, groceries, dining, entertainment, etc. The Village is just not a bunch of retirees, but a large community of all types of folks. A person not familiar with The Villages would not know when they entered or left the community. Again, if you want to discuss The Villages and how it works, I’m all in.
The Florida Department of Health website (FLHealthCHARTS.gov: Site Search) does not list results by cities, but rather by county. The bulk of The Villages is Sumter County, so this is the data I looked up. I am also listing your home county of Brevard for comparison. To support my comment that STDs in The Villages is an “urban legend” here are some findings. The results are for the year 2020, the most current data available.
Total Syphilis per 100,000 population:
Brevard – 36.4 Sumter – 15 5th lowest in the state
Gonorrhea per 100,000 population:
Brevard – 139.4 Sumter – 48 2nd lowest in the state
Chlamydia per 100,000 population:
Brevard – 336.3 Sumter – 133.5 lowest in the state
I think this should put to rest the “STD capitol of the World” thinking.
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