PRESS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE ACTING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Results from the first food safety study in Puerto Rico presented

Under the name Puerto Rico Food Security Survey 2015, and in collaboration with the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance, BRFSS) administered in Puerto Rico by the Department of Health, the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) presented the results of the first study on this topic to be carried out in Puerto Rico. The BRFSS is a continuous epidemiological surveillance system that is carried out in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States and its jurisdictions, including Puerto Rico. The study population was adults aged 18 and over and the response rate in Puerto Rico was 71.1%, placing us among the top 25 jurisdictions with the highest participation. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, food insecurity is a key factor that complements the undernourishment indicator and makes it possible to improve the characterization of hunger.

“The large amount of food imported into Puerto Rico, among other aspects, makes the population more vulnerable to food insecurity. This is why it is essential to know the statistics related to this aspect, as well as the risk behaviors, morbidities and health practices of vulnerable populations,” said the Institute's acting executive director, Dr. Orville M. Disdier.

From the most relevant data from this study, it is estimated that 33% of the population aged 18 and over in Puerto Rico were food insecure. Similarly, 21.7% of the people interviewed indicated that, in the 12 months before the study, there were times when they had to serve themselves less food or stop eating one of their daily meals due to lack of money. A quarter of these (25.8%) did so almost every month.

The study also revealed, among others, that the Arecibo region had the highest percentage of food insecurity with 40.6%, while the metropolitan area and Ponce were the regions with the lowest food insecurity with 31.8% and 31.4% respectively. 44.3% of food-insecure people perceived their health as regular or poor. This percentage was higher in women (47.6%) compared to men (38.7%). People diagnosed with a depressive disorder were 2.7 times more likely to belong to the food-insecure group than people who had not been diagnosed with a depressive disorder.

“One of the most revealing results is related to poverty and its impact on food insecurity. The study concluded that people with an income of less than $25,000 are 3.3 times more likely to belong to the food insecure group than people with an income of $25,000 or more,” said Myribel Santiago, Project Manager of the Institute and lead author of the study.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous entity, created by Act No. 209 of August 28, 2003, as amended, in order to promote changes in the systems for the collection and analysis of the information that is generated, so that it is complete, reliable and has quick and universal access. The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is responsible for establishing criteria and standards for the collection and analysis of information from government agencies, and for supporting those private sectors that are interested in demonstrating and giving public evidence of the objectivity of statistical data. To access the study you can visit Publications.

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Contact: Lourdes Burgos, R-27

lburgos@upfrontpr.net 787-562-2932

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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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Creative Industries represent about 6% of sales in Puerto Rico companies.