Data presented from the Report on Violent Deaths in Puerto Rico
631 homicides and 229 suicides were reported in Puerto Rico in 2019
The Puerto Rico Violent Death Notification System (PRVDRS) established at the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, presented data from the 2019 Report on Violent Deaths in Puerto Rico. The report reports that in 2019 there were 828 incidents of violent deaths, with a total of 894 fatalities. Of the total number of violent deaths, 631 were homicides and 229 were suicides. According to the PRVDRS, violent deaths occur primarily by suicide or homicide.
In 2019, 70.6% of victims of violent deaths were reported in single or multiple homicide incidents and 25.6% were suicide incidents. Five homicide-suicide incidents were reported, resulting in 10 fatalities. In addition, during this period, 10 (1.1%) violent deaths attributed to legal intervention (death in which a person is killed or killed by a law enforcement officer acting in the line of duty) and 20 violent deaths with undetermined intent (2.2%) were documented. Deaths with undetermined intent are those that result from the use of force or power, against oneself or another person, in which evidence indicates that one way of death is no more convincing than another form of death, according to the judgment of medico-legal researchers.
In 2019, approximately 9 out of 10 victims of violent deaths (89.7%) were men. The crude homicide rate was 19.8 per 100,000 inhabitants, 38.9 in men and 2.4 in women. The primary mechanism of the homicides was firearms. 91.7% of the 631 homicides are documented as related to the context of community violence. The victims of these incidents are mainly men (n=558, 96.4%), between 15 and 49 years of age (n=497, 89.1%). The most common criminal circumstances of homicides in Puerto Rico are related to illegal drug trafficking and organized crime (53.5%). In Puerto Rico, according to the report, 91.0% of homicides are committed with firearms, more than double the global average of 42.7%.
In 2019, 29 fatal victims of family violence were reported. Most of these cases were related to violence in an intimate or former partner environment (17 cases, 58.6%). While violence between family members (12 cases, 41.4%), occurred mainly during an argument (63.6%). The vast majority of victims of intimate partner violence were women (n= 15, 88.2%). The two main mechanisms of all homicides of intimate partners were firearms (41.2%) and a sharp instrument (35.3%). More than half of these women were victims of their current spouse or partner (53.3%), while 46.7% were victims of their former spouse or former partner. In addition, 5 of the 17 fatal cases of intimate partner violence were homicide-suicide incidents (29.4%).
As for suicides in Puerto Rico, the report highlights that the frequency is lower than that of homicides. However, as in homicides, suicides are more frequent in men (80.8%). In 2019, the crude suicide rate was 7.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, 12.2 in men (1 of 112 men) and 2.6 in women (1 of 494 women). The main mechanism was asphyxiation.
Mariluz Bezares Salinas, manager of statistical projects at the Institute of Statistics and co-principal investigator of the Report on Violent Deaths in Puerto Rico, explained that the collection of this type of data could involve fieldwork that takes more than two years from the time the incident occurs until the collection and review of the data is completed. For his part, Dr. Diego Zavala, epidemiologist and co-principal investigator of the PRVDRS, said that “this system is a reliable, complete and unique reference source that helps describe the context of violent deaths in the victim-aggressor relationship and the magnitude, trend and characteristics of violent deaths in Puerto Rico.”
The PRVDRS is an epidemiological surveillance system affiliated with the Institute of Statistics and designed to obtain a complete and standardized census of violent deaths in Puerto Rico. The PRVDRS began its participation in the National Violent Death Notification System (National Violent Death Reporting System, NVDRS) in September 2016, through a collaborative agreement granted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The 2019 Report on Violent Deaths in Puerto Rico is available through the following link: Puerto Rico Violent Death Notification System.
The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity tasked with 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 accessible quickly and universally.
To learn more about the Institute of Statistics, you can access the website: www.estadisticas.pr.gov. On social media through Facebook accounts (@statistics.pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR), Instagram (@institutodeestadisticas) and LinkedIn (Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics).
During the calendar year 2019, it was estimated, in net terms, that nearly 35,000 people immigrated to other jurisdictions in the United States. This is revealed by the most recent data from the Community Survey.
Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau covers the 2019 calendar year. The new data has been published through the new platform data.census.gov. As the local entity liaising with the U.S. Census Bureau, the Institute of Statistics shares several findings from the new 2019 data:
In 2019, Puerto Rico's migration indicators showed the following changes compared to previous years:
Around 35,000 people immigrated to other jurisdictions in the United States in net terms, representing a decrease compared to previous years (2011-2018) where the net balance ranged from 49,000 to 113,000 people migrating annually based on information from the Community Survey.
31,144 people immigrated from the United States to Puerto Rico, contrasting with an increase in immigrants of 49% compared to 2018, where an estimated immigration of 20,900 people was estimated.
66,021 people immigrated to other jurisdictions in the United States, showing a decrease from the record number in 2018, which amounted to 133,451 people.
Regarding various socioeconomic characteristics for Puerto Rico during 2019:
Some 684,655 people or 21.6% of the population (3,169,528) reported having a disability.
Around 77,000 grandparents live with their grandson or granddaughter under 18 and 32.2% of these are responsible for them.
For the population aged 25 and over (2,301,735):
78.8% had a higher education or higher education
27.2% had an education attained at the baccalaureate level or higher
39.5% and 43.5% of families and individuals, respectively, are below the poverty line.
The median household income was $20,474.
The median household income was $25,388.
The GINI index, which measures income inequality, where the value of 0 indicates that there is perfect equality and the value 1 total inequality, places Puerto Rico with an indicator of 0.5509, being the highest when compared to the states.
As for households (1,170,982), it was estimated that:
76.3% had a computer
68.2% had access to an internet subscription (broadband)
“In terms of migration, published data for 2019 point to a reduction in net migration compared to previous years. However, the fact that nearly 35,000 people have emigrated means that 1% of Puerto Rico's population declined through emigration in a single year, which has been the drastic trend throughout the decade 2010-2020,” said Alberto L. Velázquez-Estrada, Manager of Statistical Projects at the Institute.
INSTITUTE WILL CONTINUE TO INVEST IN PLANNING BOARD STATISTICS
The decision makes it easier for the Planning Board to comply with the methodological changes
required for Puerto Rico's economy to be included in that of the United States
San Juan, PR, July 6, 2018 — The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) announced today that its Board of Directors recently approved continuing to financially support the work of the Roadmap for the Modernization of Puerto Rico's Economic Accounts, work plan agreed between the Planning Board (JP) and the Institute for necessary improvements to Puerto Rico's macroeconomic accounting methodologies.
East Roadmap includes the need to invest in the information systems used by JP to prepare Puerto Rico's economic accounting statistics. In fact, the Institute has been investing in these systems for more than a year. Specifically, in 2016 it was entrusted to the company Wovenware the migration of information systems from a technology based on Oracle products to one based on Microsoft SQL. This is because Oracle discontinued technological support for Softwares that JP uses, which caused processing problems in that agency.
The recent decision, for example, extends this agreement to the next fiscal year, during which it is expected that Wovenware complete final phases 3 and 4 for which the Institute will be investing more than $300,000. The project, which began in 2016 and is expected to end in 2019, will allow the database to be updated automatically, duplicate data to be eliminated and processes to be improved as well as the accessibility of JP statistics.
“As part of our mission to objectively support public administration, the Institute's Board of Directors has done its part to continue the necessary improvements in government, at times of great uncertainty. It is also a project supported by the employees of the JP and the President of the JP that will allow this agency to evolve and for which we are investing more than 10% of the Institute's budget,” said the executive director of the Institute, Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago.
“It is worth noting that this project implements some of the methodological changes adopted by the Institute's Board of Directors in the Resolution No. 2014-02, so that Puerto Rico's national accounts are more reliable, comparable and quickly and universally accessible. At the same time, we are complying with the federal government's requirements for Puerto Rico's economy to be included in the statistics of the United States economy,” added Dr. Marazzi-Santiago.
A recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), entitled Puerto Rico: Limited Federal Data Hinder Analysis of Economic Condition and Dol's 2016 Overtime Rule, found that the lack of federal data on Puerto Rico's economy had made it difficult to analyze the impact of a labor standard proposed by former President of the United States, Barack Obama, on overtime pay for certain types of jobs.
“For statistics on the Puerto Rico economy to be included in those of the United States economy, the Government of Puerto Rico must do its part as well. Since 2011, the federal Government has written down the methodological changes that need to be made to the Planning Board. It is important that this agenda be continued. The Institute's Board of Directors has done its part, because it has the expertise, professionalism, seriousness and independence of judgment that are necessary to understand that this is an agenda that is too important to be derailed,” said Dr. Marazzi-Santiago.
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. The Institute has in its inventory, accessible through https://estadisticas.pr.gov, about 300 statistical products. In addition, it is a custodian and provides access to over 100 data sets or “data sets” through https://data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: https://www.indicadores.pr.
In addition, as the leading entity of the State Data Center (SDC) of Puerto Rico, the Institute manages the SDC portal, which contains the main statistical reports and publications of the U.S. Census Bureau on 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 10-year population and housing censuses, among others. The Puerto Rico SDC portal can be accessed through: https://censo.estadisticas.pr.
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