Free workshops and webinars at the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics

For government officials and the general public

Starting today, Wednesday, February 22, 2023, pre-registration begins for the free offer of workshops and webinars offered by the Statistics Institute of Puerto Rico. This virtual offer of nine workshops with 16 sessions and three webinars seeks to provide solutions in the access, management and analysis of government statistical data and is carried out with rigor and quality in the development of content that is carried out by specialists.

The online format offers the opportunity to participate to government officials and the general public, since the format is asynchronous, that is, within the time available to the participant. In the same way, multiple sessions are included, allowing participants the flexibility to enroll on those dates that are most convenient. Interested individuals can complete pre-enrollment at Academy

The topics included are:

• • • R statistical analysis software: one of the most commonly used open-access and user-friendly software for Data analytics and Data Science.
      • R basic: introductory workshop to help publicize and facilitate the adoption of this programming language for people interested in strengthening their resources for the processing, analysis, visualization and presentation of their statistical research.
      • RStudio: introduction to the integrated development environment (IDE, in English) for managing R, in the analysis, visualization and presentation of statistical analyses.
      • Tidycensus: R library that facilitates the access and processing of data from the U.S. Census Bureau, such as the Census, population estimates and the Community Survey.
    • Tableau Public: free platform that allows the use of interface commands to explore, create and publish data and visualizations online.
    • Resources from the U.S. Census Bureau:
      • Population and housing data: presentation and performance of practical exercises on the tool https://data.census.gov/ to search for data on population and housing in Puerto Rico.
      • Access to microdata from the Community Survey: tool for customizing variable crosses for the analysis of population and housing data in Puerto Rico.
      • QGIS for analyzing data by geographical regions: QGIS is an open source Geographic Information System (GIS). Together with data from the U.S. Census Bureau, maps can be generated to analyze housing, economic, social and demographic issues.
    • Resources from the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics:
      • Cost of Living Index and Calculator: presentation of a publication and Web App that allows us to compare the cost of living in Puerto Rico and different urban areas of the United States.
      • The Violent Death Surveillance System in Puerto Rico: project presentation and publication of data on violent deaths from a health perspective.

On the other hand, webinars are live sessions, in which participants can connect via the Internet to a platform where they can see and hear the speaker and ask the speaker questions after the session is completed.

The topics of the three webinars, with a capacity of 1,000 participants each, are:

• Dominican population in Puerto Rico and its contrasts with the Puerto Rican population, 2015-2019: exposure to the microdata files of the U.S. Census Bureau and an example of their application to the study of the sociodemographic profile of the Dominican population living in Puerto Rico.
• Geographic Delimitations of the U.S. Census Bureau: guidance on the various geographical levels used by the U.S. Census Bureau for the presentation of its data.
• Violence and Femicide in Puerto Rico - Concepts and Statistics: aimed at advising participants on the importance of statistics on gender-based violence and femicide from a health perspective.

To access all the details of the Academies and Workshops Program, see Here.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is a governmental entity in the executive branch, with fiscal and administrative autonomy, whose main purpose is to ensure that Puerto Rico has complete, reliable statistics that are quickly and universally accessible. 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).

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Data presented from the Report on Violent Deaths in Puerto Rico

598 homicides and 190 suicides were reported in Puerto Rico in 2022

The Puerto Rico Violent Death Notification System (PRVDRS, in English) established at the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, presented data from the Puerto Rico Violent Deaths Report for the year 2022. The report reports that in 2022, there were 727 incidents of violent deaths, with a total of 809 fatalities. Of the total number of violent deaths, 598 were homicides and 190 were suicides, representing 97.4% of violent deaths.

In 2022, 73.9% of victims of violent deaths were reported in single or multiple homicide incidents and 23.5% were suicide incidents. Seven homicide-suicide incidents were reported, resulting in 14 fatalities. In addition, 6 violent deaths attributed to legal intervention (0.7%), four violent deaths from unintentional self-inflicted firearms (0.5%) and 11 violent deaths with undetermined intent (1.4%) were documented during this period. In 2022, approximately 9 out of 10 victims of violent deaths (89.6%) were men. The crude rate of violent deaths for Puerto Rico in 2022 was 25.1 per 100,000 inhabitants, 47.6 in men and 4.9 in women.

Of the 809 violent deaths recorded in 2022, 598 were homicides (73.9%). The majority of homicides occurred between the ages of 15 and 39. In these age groups, 73.2% of all homicides occurred among men and 66.0% among women. The primary mechanism of the homicides was firearms. In Puerto Rico, 93.6% of homicides were committed with firearms. Globally, firearm homicides account for 69.5%.

In 2022, nearly half of the homicides occurred in an environment of collective violence. 255 of the 598 homicides (42.6%) registered in 2022 occurred in a context related to criminal groups involved in the trafficking of illegal drugs.

In 2022, 28 fatal victims of family violence were reported. Family violence (violence between family members) includes child or adult abuse and violence against an intimate partner. Most of these cases were related to violence in an intimate or former partner environment (13 cases, 67.9%). There were 9 fatal incidents among family members (32.1%). The vast majority of victims of intimate partner violence were women (n= 13, 68.4%). More than half of these women were victims of their former spouse or former male partner (61.5%), while 30.8% were victims of their current spouse or partner. In addition, a firearm was used in 10 of the 13 femicides/femicides (76.9%).

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 (85.5%). In 2022, the crude suicide rate was 5.9 per 100,000 inhabitants, 10.6 in men (1 of 145 men) and 1.6 in women (1 of 788 women). The main mechanism was asphyxiation (62.3% in men and 53.6% in women).

The collection of this type of data involves fieldwork that usually takes more than two years, from the time the incident occurs until the collection, review and publication of the data is completed. 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, said: “This report not only reflects the magnitude of violent deaths in Puerto Rico, but it also provides a detailed overview of the circumstances and factors associated with the occurrence of violent deaths. This information is crucial for guiding public policy decisions and designing interventions that save lives and promote safer communities.”

“This violent death reporting system is a reliable, complete and unique reference source that helps describe vital information about the circumstances surrounding violent deaths in Puerto Rico. This data is essential for government agencies and community organizations to implement evidence-based prevention programs,” said Dr. Diego Zavala, epidemiologist and co-principal investigator of the PRVDRS.

For the Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, Dr. Orville M. Disdier, the Puerto Rico Violent Death Notification System has been and is fundamental to understanding the magnitude and characteristics of this public health problem. “Data from 2022 allow us to identify crucial patterns and trends to develop more effective and efficient prevention strategies. Our commitment at the Institute of Statistics is to continue strengthening this statistical and epidemiological system to continue to have statistics, complete, reliable and quickly and universally accessible, on this topic,” argued Dr. Disdier.

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 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.

The 2022 Report on Violent Deaths in Puerto Rico is available at: Puerto Rico Violent Death Notification System. To learn about the Institute of Statistics, you can access it on social networks through Facebook (@estadisticas .pr), X (formerly Twitter) (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) accounts.

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