The percentage of Florida's populations without health insurance has continued to grow this decade, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Thursday.

Twenty-four percent of the state's residents were uninsured as of 2005, the latest year for which figures are available. That was the third-highest rate in the country, behind only Texas (26.3 percent) and New Mexico (24.2 percent).

In 1999, 16.8 percent of Floridians lacked health insurance.

In Central Florida, the new Census data showed that the problem was worst in Lake County, where nearly 27 percent of the residents were uninsured. Brevard County had the lowest rate, about 20 percent.

In Orange County, nearly 23 percent of the population is uninsured; in Osceola, 23.4 percent; Seminole, 19.9 percent; Polk, 24 percent; and Volusia, 21 percent. All of the percentages have a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points, the bureau said.

"It's clear that the number of uninsured people is going up steadily," said Paul Duncan, chairman of the Health Services Research, Management and Policy department at University of Florida. The department conducted similar county-level research, but its data, from 2004, showed numbers that were slightly lower than the bureau's results.

Central Florida counties fall in the middle when compared with counties statewide. The county with the highest percentage of uninsured residents: DeSoto, in the southwest part of the state, with 37 percent. The county with the lowest rate: Baker, in the northern part of the state, with only 15.3 percent of its residents uninsured.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Anika Myers Palm Sentinel Staff Writer