San Juan, PR, May 22, 2025 — The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) published the Demographic Observatory, a summary table with graphs on demographic aspects of Puerto Rico. The tool visualizes a series of statistical indicators by demographic components, combining in a single instance the main sources of information that are usually separated. Through simple navigation, you can view recent statistics on Annual Population Estimates, Decennial Censuses, Vital Statistics with Fertility and Mortality indicators, as well as estimates of Migration by various characteristics.

El Demographic Observatory contains a total of twenty-three (23) graphics displayed in the following sections:

• Panoramic, which is composed of five (5) graphs showing the trend of the total population, total births and deaths, natural growth and the structure by age and sex.
• Fertility, which contains visualizations on the behavior of births by month, birth rate, fertility and specific fertility rates, births by method of delivery and number of abortions.
• Mortality, which integrates graphs such as deaths by month, crude rates by sex, age group and total, maternal and child mortality rate, life expectancy at birth, as well as the percentage of deaths by cause and sex.
• Migration, with estimates in recent years of the total immigrant and emigrant population and by age group, net migration and its percentage within the total population, migrants with post-secondary education or more and net movement of passengers.

• Notes, which contains information about the concepts and their definitions in the included graphics, the sources of information and technical or explanatory notes.

El Demographic Observatory is available on the Institute's Census Data and Information page (SDC-PR) at https://censo.estadisticas.pr/node/535. “Fulfilling our mission to guarantee complete, reliable statistics with quick and universal access, we have created a series of simple visualizations that allow us to observe the demographic behavior of the jurisdiction, thus promoting informed and evidence-based decision-making,” said Lanselotte Oliveras, Assistant for Statistical Projects at the Institute.

For his part, Alberto L. Velázquez-Estrada, Senior Manager of Statistical Projects at the Institute, said, “The Demographic Observatory manages to visually centralize several demographic trends in Puerto Rico as conceptualized. In this sense, people can directly consult the behavior of relevant demographic traits that are frequently requested.”

As the leading entity of the State Data Center of Puerto Rico, the Institute manages the SDC portal, which contains the main statistical reports and publications of the U.S. Census Bureau about Puerto Rico, specifically those that are most in demand, such as annual population estimates; the Puerto Rico Community Survey (Puerto Rico Community Survey) and official statistics on Puerto Rico's decennial population and housing censuses, among others. The Puerto Rico SDC portal can be accessed through: https://censo.estadisticas.pr.

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 visit the website: www.estadisticas.pr or 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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Puerto Rico Statistics Institute participates in the hearing of the Natural Resources Committee of the United States House of Representatives

Washington, DC — June 21, 2024. The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) participated in the hearing of the Subcommittee on Indigenous and Insular Affairs of the Committee on Natural Resources of the United States House of Representatives. During the hearing, entitled Examining the findings of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to address data breaches and improve data collection in the territories, the importance of having high-quality statistics for effective democratic governance and the appropriate allocation of government resources was emphasized.

The representative of the Institute at these hearings, Mr. Jacobo Orenstein Cardona, said that the Institute supports the recent GAO report, which recommends “that the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) ensure that your Chief Statistician develops a coordinated approach at the government level so that federal statistical agencies, in consultation with U.S. territories and other stakeholders, examine the costs, benefits and feasibility of including territories in statistical products and, as appropriate, identify ways to address any data gaps.”

During his presentation, Orenstein-Cardona, who is also the Institute's executive assistant, emphasized that “high-quality statistics are fundamental to a functional democracy because they provide a factual basis for making informed decisions. In a democratic society, the ability of citizens to make educated decisions about their governance and policies is paramount.”

Among other issues, Orenstein-Cardona emphasized that “high-quality statistics help in the allocation of government resources, since they indicate where more investment is needed, whether in education, health, infrastructure or other areas. They also promote a culture of responsibility, where public officials are responsible for their decisions and the results obtained.”

Orenstein-Cardona concluded his presentation by mentioning that, “through collaboration with federal and local governments, the Institute can serve as an intermediary and contribute significantly to the inclusion of Puerto Rico in federal statistical products. This will allow for comparability with other jurisdictions in the United States and will improve the reliability of statistics for the benefit of the entire population of Puerto Rico.”

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 visit the website: www.estadisticas.pr or 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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Author: Alejandro López Flores and Ronald G. Hernández Maldonado

Date: November 6, 2025

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Poverty must be contextualized with social variables to understand and address it effectively. The Backwardness Index for Puerto Rico is an indicator composed of five variables that comprise two dimensions: Economic Mobility and Demography. This index seeks to measure poverty beyond income thresholds, and to incorporate elements of social backwardness and relative deprivation. An exploratory factor analysis was carried out on a set of variables to validate the construction of the multidimensional deprivation model, and to retain the variables that best captured the phenomenon of deprivation. Then, the retained variables were normalized using thresholds. The thresholds were obtained with data from the Puerto Rico Community Survey (ECPR or PRCS in English) and the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS in English). The scores of the different variables were aggregated by dimension, using the arithmetic mean, and the scores resulting from the dimensions were aggregated using the geometric mean. The values of the index lie between 0 and 1 where, the higher the score, the worse the result of the phenomenon.42 municipalities showed a decrease in their index score between the periods compared. Of these 42 municipalities, 22 showed a decrease in their score greater than 5%. Likewise, there are concentrations of municipalities with high Lagging Index scores in the central-southwest and southeastern areas of Puerto Rico.

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