Press Release

Statistics collected on seismic activity in Puerto Rico

Data includes socio-demographic characteristics of the affected areas

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute announced that they added a new section to their graphics portal with information related to seismic activity that has been reported in Puerto Rico since December 2019. The information is contained in a panel that is updated weekly and includes seismic activity (events, magnitude, maps), sociodemographic characteristics of the affected areas, earthquake preparation guides and telephone numbers by area of the Negotiated for Emergency Management and Disaster Management (NMEAD).

“As part of our mission, we have been working and are continuing to update this new section in order to provide and make available the statistical aspects related to the seismic activity we are experiencing in Puerto Rico. As part of this process, we address data related to the social and demographic profile of the areas where earthquakes are recorded. We trust that these data will help all professionals involved in the reconstruction of the areas,” said Dr. Orville M. Disdier, acting executive director of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics.

Access to this information is available through https://public.tableau.com/profile/instituto.de.estadisticas.de.puerto.rico #! /VIZHome/Puerto Rico Earthquake Activity-2020/Story 1 People interested in learning more about data related to seismic activity in Puerto Rico can write to: francisco.pesante@estadisticas.pr.

To learn more about the Institute of Statistics, you can access the website: www.estadisticas.pr.gov. On social media through Facebook (@estadisticas .pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) accounts.

###

Contacts:

Idia M. Martinez, R-28/787-603-3200

Lourdes Burgos, R-27/787-562-2932

‍

PRESS RELEASE
DR. MARIO MARAZZI-SANTIAGO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

AUTHORIZED STATEMENTS BY THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS REGARDING THE FINAL APPROVAL OF P. C. 1403 BY THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF PUERTO RICO

Last night, the Legislative Assembly agreed on the Conference Committee and approved the House Project 1403 after deleting Chapter XII related to the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics.

We thank and congratulate both the House and the Senate for having completed the approval of the reorganization of the Department of Economic Development and Commerce, after having accepted our recommendation as well as the request of thousands of individuals and scientists, 47 world-renowned scientific organizations, 16 congressmen, the Puerto Rican National Agenda, the Private Sector Coalition, the Transparency Network, the Network of Foundations, the Academy for the Advancement of the Sciences, the American Statistical Association, the Royal Statistical Society, among many others, who publicly called for the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics to remain an autonomous entity of the Government of Puerto Rico.

We reiterate our best willingness to hold an open dialogue regarding the future of the Institute of Statistics, its role within the Government of Puerto Rico and our society, so that we are allowed to continue working to ensure that the systems for collecting data and statistics, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable and accessible quickly and universally.

##

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

PRESS RELEASE
DR. MARIO MARAZZI‐SANTIAGO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

May 24, 2018

The Puerto Rico Violent Death Surveillance System developed by the Institute is recognized as the best new program by the Division of Violence Prevention from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

San Juan, PR, May 24, 2018 — The Puerto Rico Violent Death Surveillance System (PRVDRS, in English) developed and established by the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute), thanks to a proposal approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has been recognized as the best of the new programs established by the Division of Violence Prevention of this entity.

This was announced by the Executive Director of the Institute, Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago, who said he was pleased with the recognition and extraordinary work of the team in charge of the Institute, led by Dr. Idania Rodríguez Ayuso, the Institute's senior manager of Statistical Projects, and Dr. Diego E. Zavala, co-researcher of the project. “This important recognition demonstrates that statistical information can be collected in an agile, timely and systematic manner by government entities in Puerto Rico and that it complies with federal requirements. We are grateful for this recognition, which has been the result of the efforts of a committed and excellent work team. We are also grateful for the collaboration of the Demographic Registry of the Department of Health, the Puerto Rico Police and the Forensic Science Bureau, which, with the provision of the necessary data for its operation, are also part of this important achievement,” said Dr. Marazzi-Santiago.

The PRVDRS is an active, continuous epidemiological surveillance system that collects information on violent deaths. It uses multiple sources of data and incorporates them into a single database, using the ecological model of public health. It began in September 2016 and began collecting data on violent deaths starting in January 2017. The proposal, funded by the CDC, lasts 5 years.

Data is collected in a systematic way to be a single reference base with complete and accurate data. They are obtained from the Puerto Rico Police Bureau, the Forensic Science Bureau and the Department of Health's Demographic Registry. The system seeks to achieve standardization using specific definitions and providing comprehensive information on the context in which deaths occur. This will help identify risk factors (e.g. job loss, mental health problems, family problems and other stressors).

The PRVDRS will also provide data related to the magnitude of violence and trends at different geographical levels. All of this will be essential to support the monitoring and evaluation of violence prevention programs and strategies in Puerto Rico. The PRVDRS has an Advisory Board and a Review Group. The latter discusses the discrepancies found in data collection. In addition, it is part of the Institute and currently has three employees assigned to it and a total of 12 people in total working on the project.

Based on data from the Bureau of Forensic Sciences, the homicide rate in Puerto Rico in 2014 was 20.11 per 100,000 inhabitants, four times higher than the equivalent rate for the United States (4.8). The latest data available for the United States is from 2014 and is based on information provided by 18 states, representing 22.5% of the United States population. For more information about the CDC's NVDRS you can access the following link: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/nvdrs/stateprofiles.html

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 https://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 https://data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: https://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: https://estadisticas.pr.gov. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook accounts (https://www.facebook.com/estadisticas.pr), Twitter (https://twitter.com/estadisticaspr) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/instituto-de-estadisticas-de-puerto-rico).

##

Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes (787) 688-0401

‍