PRESS RELEASE
RED STATE DATA CENTER OF PUERTO RICO

Data collection begins for Puerto Rico's 2017 Economic Census

Statistics Institute urges companies to complete the Economic Census questionnaire on or before June 12

San Juan, PR, June 6, 2018 — The 2017 Economic Census of Puerto Rico, the main source of data on the structure and functioning of the country's economy, has already begun in Puerto Rico with the sending of questionnaires by post to companies, which will have until June 12 to fill it out.

This was reported by the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute), representative and coordinator of the activities of the U.S. Census Bureau in Puerto Rico, while urging business owners to complete the questionnaire online (https://portal.census.gov), as soon as possible, to ensure timely compliance, required by federal law.

Specifically, this time, the questionnaire sent by post includes instructions and a unique code that participants can use to complete it online. That way, respondents can complete it securely. Companies also have the option of filling out the printed questionnaire that was included in the mailing. If you have any questions or need assistance completing the questionnaire, companies can call 1-888-872-8390, Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

The mailing of Puerto Rico's 2017 Economic Census questionnaires began in early May. Title 13 of the United States Code requires each company to complete the questionnaire. The answers are confidential. By law, the U.S. Census Bureau you have a duty to keep information private and secure. Federal law protects the responses of all companies and ensures that data can only be used for statistical purposes.

“Puerto Rico's 2017 Economic Census is already taking place. Companies should have already started receiving the questionnaire by post. For the first time, a mechanism will be offered to complete the Economic Census by electronic means. The collaboration of all companies with this Census is extremely important, because it is expected that this will be the first Economic Census to be used for the purpose of preparing the gross product statistics of Puerto Rico's economy,” said Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago, executive director of the Institute.

The results of Puerto Rico's 2017 Economic Census will be available in December 2020 and will include aggregated information at the industrial and municipal levels on the number of establishments, revenues, sales, payroll, number of employees, goods and services produced, and other topics specific to each industry. For the previous results of the Economic Census, visit the following link: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/economic-census/about/island-areas.html.

El U.S. Census Bureau measures the population of Puerto Rico once every 10 years. In addition, every 5 years, it conducts the Puerto Rico Economic Census. This Census is used by trade associations, economic development agencies, governments and individual companies for business decision-making and public policy formulation. In addition, as recommended by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to the Government of Puerto Rico, this should be used as a reference when estimating statistics on the gross product of the economy, which is expected to be achieved for the first time with the 2017 Economic Census.

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 www.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 www.data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: www.indicadores.pr.

In addition, as the leading entity of the SDC in 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/.

For more information you can visit our website: www.estadisticas.pr.gov. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook (estadisticas.pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) accounts.

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Press Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes/(787) 688-0401

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Puerto Rico present at the largest meeting of United States Statisticians

PRESS RELEASE

DISRUPTED THE MOVEMENT OF PASSENGERS AFTER HURRICANES

Federal data on passenger departures and arrivals on domestic flights confirm this

San Juan, PR, December 19, 2017 — Recently, the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) published the statistics on air traffic in the United States and Puerto Rico, known as Air Carrier Statistics, for the month of September 2017. These data are provided by airlines to BTS on a monthly basis and represent the first official data published by the federal Government on the movement of air passengers following the passage of hurricanes Irma and María over Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) presents this brief summary of several findings from this disclosure:

1) Compared to September 2016, the number of air passengers arriving in Puerto Rico dropped by 45 percent, from 238 thousand passengers to only 131 thousand. In the same way, passenger departures from Puerto Rico fell from 254,000 passengers to 173,000 for a decrease of 32 percent.

2) All major destinations and origins of flights from Puerto Rico were affected. The states that experienced the largest percentage reductions in passenger arrivals from Puerto Rico were: Florida, Connecticut, Texas, Georgia, and Illinois. The states with the largest percentage reductions in passenger departures to Puerto Rico were: Florida, Illinois, Connecticut, Texas and Maryland.

3) In 2016, 88,000 net people left Puerto Rico on domestic flights. In recent months, this figure had shown signs of diminishing, falling to almost 60,000 net passengers. With the data just released, this number once again expanded to 93,000 passengers for the 12-month period between October 2016 and September 2017.

Note: Flights within Puerto Rico (intra-island) are excluded. States that received less than a thousand passengers from Puerto Rico in September 2016 are excluded, so the sum of the states is slightly different from the total reported in the table.

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Regarding the movement of passengers, Alberto L. Velázquez-Estrada, manager of Statistical Projects at the Institute, said: “The net movement of passengers in the last 12 months allows us to approximate the behavior of the migratory trend, which in itself is volatile. Data released as of September 2017 are beginning to validate the repercussions after the natural event. First, a decline in air passenger flow due to airport interruptions and second, an increase in more people leaving than returning to the island. In other words, the figure for September 2017 predicts a new increase in emigration, which in itself has fluctuated for more than a decade at high values compared to the size of the population of Puerto Rico.”

More details on data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics can be obtained at: https://www.transtats.bts.gov/. You can also access the air flight dataset with cargo and passenger information at https://datos.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. The Institute has in its inventory, accessible through statistics.pr.gov, over 300 statistical products. In addition, it is a custodian and provides access to over 100 data sets or “data sets” through www.data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: www.indicadores.pr. For more information you can visit our website: www.estadisticas.pr. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook (estadisticas.pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) accounts.

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Press Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes/ (787) 688-0401

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