Date: August 29, 2025Explanatory Memorial requested by the Puerto Rico Senate's Joint Commission on Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change on the draft of the Plan for Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change authored by the Committee of Experts and Advisors on Climate Change.

San Juan, Puerto Rico — August 21, 2025. The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute published foreign trade data for the month of June 2025, allowing for an analysis of performance in terms of international trade for fiscal year 2025, which covers July 2024 to June 2025. Annual exports totaled $60,652,028,821, representing a decrease of 7.23% compared to the previous fiscal year, while annual imports totaled $56,372,227,806, representing an increase of 4.64% compared to the same previous period. This results in a trade balance of $4,279,801,015, a figure that reflects a decrease of 62.8% compared to the $11,508,357,246 recorded in 2024 and constitutes the lowest value in the entire 2010-2025 series. The trade balance is the indicator that measures the difference between the value of exports and that of imports of goods from a jurisdiction. A surplus occurs when exports exceed imports; a deficit, when the opposite happens. This indicator constitutes one of the main measures of international trade, since it reflects both productive capacity and the level of dependence on foreign goods. In general terms, productive capacity refers to what Puerto Rico is able to produce and sell (reflected in exports), and the level of dependence on what Puerto Rico needs to buy abroad (is reflected in imports).

Date: July 29, 2025 P. of C. 669: To create the “Law for Access to Information on Childbirth Statistics in Puerto Rico”.

Date: July 18, 2025

To create the “Law for the Establishment of the Unified System for Reporting Incidents of Gender-based Violence in Puerto Rico”, for the purpose of developing a standardized digital platform for the collection, analysis and monitoring of data on gender-based violence; to provide for the interagency integration of data from the Puerto Rico Police, the Department of Justice, the Department of Family, the Department of Health, the Office of the Women's Attorney and the Judiciary; and for other related purposes.

Date: July 17, 2025R. de la C. 138: To order the Committee on Women's Affairs of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico to conduct research on any matter related to the full development of women in society, aimed at guaranteeing and expanding opportunities for women to have access to personal, occupational and professional training and training processes; promote concrete actions aimed at significantly improving the living conditions of women in their communities; achieving true equality, by promote, disseminate and execute a public policy of true gender equity; the legal and constitutional rights of women and their situation or status in society in legal, economic, political and social aspects; discrimination against women or possible violation of their legal and constitutional rights; femicides; the needs of single mothers and their families, of young women who, for reasons of violence, premature pregnancy or economic circumstances, among others, choose to abandon their studies, of women who because of abuse or divorce require a secure roof, professionals who require government support for the care of their sons and daughters and access to employment opportunities and business activities and those who require adequate access to sexual and reproductive health, prenatal, childbirth and post-partum services; and for other related purposes.

San Juan, Puerto Rico — June 17, 2025. The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute released the results of the Cost of Living Index (COLI) for the first quarter of 2025 (January-March). The data reveals that in the urban area of Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in San Juan-Bayamón-Caguas, public services registered an index of 161.0 (position 5 out of 282), equivalent to a cost 61% higher than the average of the participating jurisdictions. The main factor behind this gap is the residential electricity rate, whose price was 90.5% above the average of the urban areas participating in the study.

More expensive foods

In the supermarket category, the data reveal that the urban area of San Juan-Bayamón-Caguas is ranked 13th out of 282 participating urban areas in the United States, with an index of 110.7. This indicates that the cost of food in this urban area is 10.7% higher than the average for the rest of the participating areas.

Among the supermarket items considered for the COLI study, several products registered particularly high price gaps compared to the average of the participating jurisdictions.

Here are some selected items:

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An MSA is delimited according to demographic and economic criteria, considering the degree of socioeconomic integration measured by the daily movements of individuals within the urban area to their urban core. This metropolitan area has more than 2 million people, about two-thirds of the total population of Puerto Rico, so its prices affect the well-being of most households in the country.

The San Juan-Bayamón-Caguas MSA, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is comprised of 40 municipalities. Of these municipalities, 15 meet the characteristics for price collection according to the established methodology. These are: Bayamón, Caguas, Canovanas, Carolina, Cataño, Cidra, Dorado, Gurabo, Guaynabo, Rio Grande, San Juan, Toa Alta, Toa Baja, Trujillo Alto and Vega Alta.

General MSA Indicators

Below are the overall results of the 6 categories considered for COLI.

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“The fact that the residential electricity rate in Puerto Rico is 90.5% higher than the average of the urban areas participating in the COLI shows a structural distortion in the energy system. This situation directly makes the daily lives of households more expensive and reduces their financial room for maneuver. Combined with the increase in the cost of food, this translates into a clear deterioration in the standard of living of citizens,” explained Dr. Ronald G. Hernández Maldonado, Manager of Statistical Projects at the Institute.

“The composite index reflects very high costs in public services and food, partially offset by relatively low prices in health care, transportation and other miscellaneous goods,” Hernández said.

The COLI, developed since 1968 by the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER), measures quarterly the relative cost of living in participating urban areas of the United States, including Puerto Rico.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute offers an interactive calculator to compare the cost of living between the San Juan-Bayamón-Caguas MSA and other participating cities: https://apps.estadisticas.pr/coli/.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity responsible for coordinating the Government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and have quick and universal access.

For more information you can write to preguntas@estadisticas.pr. They can also follow social networks through Facebook (@estadisticas .pr), X (@EstadisticasPR), LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) and Instagram (@institutodeestadisticas) accounts.

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