Carolina, Puerto Rico. May 12, 2025. The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute held the forum “From Violence to Dialogue: Understanding and Preventing the Social Crisis”, an event that brought together leading professionals from various disciplines to analyze, from an evidence-based approach, the multiple expressions of violence faced by Puerto Rico.
The program included presentations on armed violence, drug trafficking, intimate partner violence, femicide, education, social inequality and suicide. Each presentation was based on statistical evidence and proposals to strengthen public policies aimed at prevention.
The keynote speech was given by Dr. César A. Rey Hernández, who presented a sociological perspective on the links between inequality, education and violence. In his presentation “Whoever opens a school door closes a prison”, Dr. Rey highlighted that Puerto Rico is facing a profound crisis of school dropout, youth migration, child poverty and the deterioration of the social fabric. He said that in Puerto Rico there are more drug outlets than public schools, reflecting the limited opportunities available to young people and the impact of an expanding informal and illegal economy. Dr. Rey emphasized the urgency of an educational project with a humanistic approach, capable of responding to the ethical and social challenges of the present.
Another of the forum's outstanding topics was suicide prevention, in which demographer Raúl Figueroa Rodríguez, consultant to the Commission for Suicide Prevention, offered an analysis of recent trends, revealing that Puerto Rico reports an annual average of 265 suicides, of which 85% are men, pointing out that the highest rates are recorded in municipalities in central Puerto Rico and in its island municipalities, and that more than 50% of cases are among people over 50 years of age. Figueroa presented the Puerto Rico Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index for Suicide (IVSS-PR), a tool developed to guide community interventions, resource allocation and evidence-based public policy formulation.
During the event, issues such as domestic violence, feminicide, possession of weapons, drug trafficking and the role of public health in preventing violence were also addressed. The program included the participation of experts in epidemiology, criminal justice, demography and officials from state and federal agencies, who shared updated data and multisectoral strategies.
“The purpose of this forum was to provide in-depth and rigorous analysis that serves as a basis for making informed decisions. Our responsibility as an Institute is to ensure that data is at the service of the life, security and dignity of all people in Puerto Rico,” said Dr. Orville M. Disdier Flores, Executive Director of the Institute of Statistics, who added that “this forum reinforces the Institute's commitment to continue generating and disseminating reliable information that allows us to understand the roots of violence, promote social dialogue and strengthen the formulation of evidence-based public policies.”
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.
For more information you can write to preguntas@estadisticas.pr. They can also follow social networks through Facebook (@estadisticas .pr), X (@EstadisticasPR), LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) and Instagram (@institutodeestadisticas) accounts.
Institute of Statistics creates interactive map on
school and community profiles
Based on data from the Department of Education and the Puerto Rico Community Survey
From the Census Bureau
April 21, 2022: The executive director of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, Dr. Orville M. Disdier, presented a new tool for geographical information and statistical content called “School Community Profile: The Interactive Map”. This new tool consists mainly of an interactive map that allows us to locate schools in the public system of Puerto Rico, to know the characteristics of these schools and their school population, while at the same time allowing us to know the sociodemographic characteristics of the communities close to the classroom. Among the characteristics of schools and their populations that can be found with this map are the school code, school enrollment, dropout rate, academic progress and performance (ESSA classification and STAR Framework classification), and contact information, among others. Regarding the sociodemographic characteristics of the communities, there are the percentage of children under 18 who live with their mother, the percentage of households without a computer, and the median household income, among many others. The tool also allows you to download raw data for more advanced analysis.
“Through this modern and innovative tool, it is possible to begin to explore and study possible social, ecological and economic relationships between schools, their students, and the communities in which these school populations are inserted. This will make it possible to promote true symbiotic relationships between schools and their surrounding communities, thus encouraging true open and community schools,” explained Dr. Disdier.
Disdier explained that the development of this tool was possible in part, thanks to the collaboration and contribution of the Puerto Rico Department of Education, who provided and continue to provide essential data and statistics about schools and their students. He also mentioned that this initiative is aligned with the vision of the Secretary of Education of Puerto Rico, Eliezer Ramos Parés, to bring parents and communities closer to schools. “In fact, the conceptualization and development of the tool benefited from ideas, recommendations and inputs from experts in the Department of Education,” said Disdier, who took the opportunity to thank Ramos Parés and his team of experts for their support.
For his part, the Secretary of the Department of Education said that “this tool is in addition to other efforts that personnel from the Planning Office of the Department of Education have developed for the implementation of educational strategies and infrastructure based on sustainable data. This project complements these initiatives, since it has valuable information, under the same platform, that will allow us to have a clearer picture of the school communities and the neighborhood in which they are located.”
The School Community Profile: The interactive map resides on the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics website and interested parties can access it at any time through the following e-mail address: School community profile.
“This is just the beginning of a series of improvements that this new tool will continue to receive. Eventually we hope to continue adding more geographical layers on variables related to health, environment, and economic, among others,” said Disdier.
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).
THREE MUNICIPALITIES HAVE 70% OR MORE OF THEIR HOMES WITH INTERNET ACCESS
San Juan, PR — El U.S. Census Bureau released today the most recent data from the Puerto Rico Community Survey known as Puerto Rico Community Survey at the municipal level. These statistics refer to information collected from 2013 to 2017, a period of 5 years. The new publication provides data on social, economic and housing characteristics for Puerto Rico and municipalities, as well as for specific geographical levels such as neighborhoods, census tracts and block groups. As the leading entity of the Network State Data Center Of U.S. Census Bureau in Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) presents this summary with several interesting results:
During the 5-year period (2013-2017), Guaynabo, Carolina and Gurabo were found to have the highest percentage of households (70%-71%), with internet connection, among all municipalities. With 60% to 69% of households with internet access, the municipalities of Juana Diaz and Villalba stand out outside the metropolitan area and east of Puerto Rico. On the other hand, some 38 municipalities had less than 50% of their homes with internet connection, mostly municipalities in the central and southwestern areas. In Puerto Rico, estimates indicate that about 54% of households had internet access.
As for households with one or more computer devices (laptop, desktop, tablets), the geographical distribution indicates that the highest percentages (60%-78%) are concentrated in the metropolitan area and coastal municipalities from Dorado, in the northeastern area, and to Humacao in the east. It is worth highlighting several municipalities with the same characteristics such as Aguadilla, Moca, Añasco, Mayagüez and Hormigueros in the west as well as Morovis, Jayuya, Villalba in the center. For Puerto Rico, it is estimated that about 62% of households had a computer device.
As for the median family income, comparing the two five-year periods (2008-12 vs. 2013-17), at the level of Puerto Rico it showed a reduction of -2.5% from $24,398 to $23,793.
At the municipal level:
In 44 municipalities, there was a decrease in the median family income, and in 13 of these municipalities the change was statistically significant, with a confidence level of 90%.
The 6 municipalities that showed the highest decrease according to the percentage change in family income were: Adjuntas, Guánica, Cidra, Loíza, Guayama and Ceiba.
On the other hand, the 6 municipalities that showed the highest increase according to the percentage change in family income were: Culebra, Villalba, Morovis, Barceloneta, Vega Baja and Coamo. Of all these, Culebra appears to be the municipality with the greatest change, but its difference is not statistically significant.
As highlighted by Dr. Orville M. Disdier, Acting Executive Director of the Institute, in this new report the U.S. Census Bureau data are integrated on the use of computers and internet in homes in Puerto Rico, by municipality. “This is the first time, since this information began to be collected in the Survey in 2013, that we can know the estimates at a more detailed geographical level, as are all municipalities.”
For his part, Alberto L. Velázquez-Estrada, Manager of Statistical Projects at the Institute, added: “Information related to internet access and computers expands the areas of research and analysis. For example, looking at the geographical pattern of fewer homes with computers and internet access in municipalities in the southwestern area of Puerto Rico, it alerts us to a possible association between the elderly population and computer and internet access. On the other hand, the reduction in family income at the Puerto Rico level translates to about $600 less during the most recent five-year period 2013-2017 compared to the previous 2008-2012. In other words, during the most recent period, there was less money in the family nucleus, complicating the socio-economic scenario faced by most families and their members in Puerto Rico.”
More statistics on the Community Survey estimates can be obtained at: http://factfinder2.census.gov/. If you need assistance using this tool to obtain data, you may find the self-study guide for using this available tool useful: https://censo.estadisticas.pr/fact-finder . Information on the methodology used to produce the estimates can be accessed hither.
In addition, as the leading entity of the Puerto Rico SDC, the IEPR manages the SDC portal, where you can find 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/.
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, 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.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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