PRESS RELEASE

PUERTO RICO STATE DATA CENTER NETWORK (SDC-PR)

It is urgent to answer the 2020 Census

Only one in four households in Puerto Rico has responded

San Juan, PR, July 15, 2020 — The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute reported that, as of July 13, only 25% of households in Puerto Rico had responded to the 2020 Decennial Census. This percentage places Puerto Rico in the lowest response position compared to other jurisdictions. In addition, it indicates that Puerto Rico is 29 percentage points lower than the self-employed response to the previous Census in 2010 (54%).

During the months of April and June, field personnel from the Federal Census Bureau delivered the questionnaire and invitation to complete it to homes. The information that residents must provide is of paramount importance for the immediate future of Puerto Rico and its municipalities. Completing the 2020 Census, among many other aspects of social and economic planning, allows:

• Find out how many there are specifically in Puerto Rico
• that children have the necessary services for their development
• that our elderly population get their proper care
• a correct and adequate distribution of funds for our population

Currently, in municipalities, the level of response ranges from 14 to 31 percent. Among the lowest levels are Culebra, Vieques, Rincón Guánica and Luquillo. On the other hand, the highest percentages at the moment indicate that they are those in the municipalities of Hormigueros, Guaynabo, Bayamón, Sabana Grande and Caguas. Detailed response information by town can be accessed at censo.estadisticas.pr.

“Just by taking 10 to 15 minutes to complete it, residents of each household can significantly improve their response to the 2020 Census. They can do it either by Internet, paper or telephone,” said Alberto L. Velázquez-Estrada, manager of statistical projects at the Institute.

Answering the Census is a constitutional mandate. Census data influences daily life, providing information for making important decisions about funding community services and infrastructure, including health care, senior centers, jobs, political representation, roads, schools and businesses. In other words, it serves as a guide so that communities can obtain the fair funds they need, as well as supporting companies to make decisions based on data that encourage the economy. For more details, data and information about the 2020 Census you can access to: https://2020census.gov/es.html.

About the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics

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. 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 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 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 the website: https://estadisticas.pr.gov/. In addition, you can follow the Institute on social networks, through Facebook (@estadisticas .pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) accounts.

##

Press Contact:

Idia Martínez

787-603-3200

imartinez@upfrontpr.net

‍

Consult users of Puerto Rico's Economic Statistics

PRESS RELEASE

Statistics Institute releases new version of the Occupied Positions Report

A new programming improves the visualization of the statistics of positions held in the government

A new programming carried out by the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics will allow a better visualization of the Occupied Positions (PO) Report in the Government and the ability to compare current information with previous months, among other advantages. For the redesign of this report, free of charge and open source software was used R, so now it is done completely through this program, eliminating manual processes that were previously carried out.

“This new program is an advanced one because it optimizes the efficiency and effectiveness of statistical processes on this topic, improves our ability to monitor government positions with updated information, and allows comparisons to be made with previous years.”, said Dr. Orville M. Disdier, executive director of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics.

The new design, as indicated by Ana Gabriela Jara Castro, manager of statistical projects at the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, includes a monthly report tabulated by agency and type of position, in addition to the time series, with the following information:

1. Number of POs at the end of the reference month, broken down by type of position (career, trust, temporary, irregular, among others) and by type of agency.
2. Monthly change in the number of POs by type of position and by type of entity.
3. Total PO for each government entity.

Jara Castro explained that, within this new format, a table (Table 4) was included that represents entities that have not reported their positions to the Office of the Comptroller for more than six months.

“The inclusion of this new table will allow the accountability process, for positions in government entities, to be a more transparent one, and more accessible to the population. The main objective of this report is to summarize the information of all the agencies represented in the Office of the Comptroller on its website,” said Ana G. Jara Castro, who was primarily responsible for the redesign of the report.

According to the website of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, the statistics presented in the Report on Statistics of Occupied Government Positions, come from the Register of Occupied Positions and Related Information, created under Act No. 103-2006, known as the Puerto Rico Government Tax Reform Act of 2006. This law states that every governmental entity has a duty to certify this information to the Comptroller's Office on a monthly basis. In those cases where the entity has not fulfilled its duty to certify its figures in a timely manner, the Statistics Institute performs a simple statistical attribution of the missing data to complete the statistics. All figures are under constant review and may change in future reports. The January 2021 edition is the most recent edition of this report and reflects that the number of total POs in government has fallen from 275,448 in January 2008 to 150,502 in January 2021. In the same way, “De Carrera” POs have fallen from 218,540 in January 2008 to 109,975 in January 2021. The report can be accessed through the following link: Statistics of Occupied Positions in the Government.

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.

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

###

Contact:

Idia M. Martinez, R-28

787-603-3200

‍