HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED: BY THE NUMBERS

Destin has come a long way since 1984: Here’s a quick then and now.

Permanent Population — 8,000 (Pre-incorporation)  16,970 (today)
Tourist Population — 255,500 (pre-incorporation), 1.3 million (today)
Fishing fleet — 125 charter boats (pre-incorporation)  100 to 125 (today)
Destin Elementary School Enrollment — 483 students, 25 teachers (pre-incorporation)  820 students, 56 teachers (today)
Traffic: Highway 98 East — 27,358 trips each day (pre incorporation) 53,009 trips each day (today)
Restaurants and Fast Food (Destin and South Walton): 54 eateries (pre-incorporporation)  250-plus eateries (today)
Police service: — 4 deputies assigned to Destin (pre-incorporation)  30 deputies, investigators, administrators and staff assigned to Destin (today)

In 1984, fire protection in Destin included 35 volunteers and five paid firefighters, three fire trucks and 300 fire hydrants in Destin. Today, according to Chief Kevin Sasser, there are 36 paid firefighters with 4 additional support staff, 4 fire trucks and over a 1,000 hydrants. “Our current staffing has decreased a little due to the current status of the economy, but with that said we have grown quite a bit since 1984,” he said.