‍More than 4,300 Homicides and 1,600 Suicides Since 2017: Digital Platform Allows Exploration of Violent Deaths in Puerto Rico

From 2017 to 2023, Puerto Rico has recorded 4,304 homicides and 1,685 suicides.These figures reflect a complex phenomenon that impacts families, communities, and public safety and health throughout the archipelago.

With the goal of promoting a deeper and more accessible understanding of this reality, the Puerto Rico Violent Death Reporting System (PRVDRS) developed a digital platform that allows for a detailed and contextualized examination of the data.

“The public policy formulation process requires reliable data and rigorous analysis. This tool allows us to measure the magnitude of violent deaths in Puerto Rico and better understand the circumstances surrounding these incidents. Evidence-based decision-making is fundamental to effectively addressing this public health and safety issue,” expressed Planner Mario O. Font Martin, Statistical Projects Manager and Coordinator of the PRVDRS.

Data to Help Understand the Phenomenon

The PRVDRS integrates information from multiple official sources, including the Puerto Rico Police, the Institute of Forensic Sciences, and the Demographic Registry of the Department of Health. By combining these sources into an anonymized database, the system allows for the analysis of not only how many deaths occur but also the circumstances surrounding them.

From the start of data collection in 2017 through 2023, the system has documented:

• 4,304 homicides
• 1,685 suicides

This integration allows for the identification of patterns and trends that are not always visible in individual reports.

What Does the Digital Platform Offer?

The tool allows citizens to:

• Explore historical trends since 2017.
• Analyze data through interactive visualizations and maps.
• Examine the classification of violence (e.g., community or collective).
• Identify the type of weapon involved.
• Review circumstances associated with the incidents.

Currently, the platform presents official consolidated data through 2023, along with preliminary data from 2024 to 2026, which will be updated monthly.

A Nationally Integrated Effort

The PRVDRsis part of the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The PRVDRS collects information documented by the Puerto Rico Police, the Institute of Forensic Sciences, and death certificates from the Department of Health's Demographic Registry into an anonymous database with over 600 variables. For more information on the NVDRS, you can access the following link: National Violent Death Reporting System.

This methodology allows for an understanding of not only the cause of death but also the circumstances and factors related to each case, facilitating comparisons with other U.S. jurisdictions.

Public Access

The platform is available through the official portal of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics: Puerto Rico Violent Death Notification System (PRVDRS) interactive tool

Open access to this data strengthens transparency and fosters informed conversations regarding violence prevention and public policy. Understanding the data is an essential step toward addressing one of the most complex challenges facing Puerto Rico in an informed manner.

About the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics

The Institute is an autonomous government entity responsible for coordinating the production of government statistics to ensure that the data collection systems upon which public policies are based are complete, reliable, and provide rapid and universal access.

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San Juan, Puerto Rico. June 4, 2025. The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) published a new interactive dashboard that presents key financial indicators for banking institutions operating in Puerto Rico and that are regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). This tool consolidates historical data from 2001 to the present, incorporating the most recent data available, corresponding to the first quarter of 2025.

The dashboard integrates a set of eighteen (18) financial indicators presented in the form of ratios, grouped into two main categories: performance indicators (Performance Ratios) and financial condition indicators (Condition Ratios). A financial ratio is a measure that relates two numerical variables, providing a standardized indicator that facilitates comparative analysis over time and between different entities. Currently, the dashboard includes information from six (6) banking institutions operating in Puerto Rico under FDIC regulation.

Among the Performance Ratios What is included in the dashboard are: Yield on Earning Assets, Cost of Funding Earning Assets, Net Interest Margin, Noninterest Income to Average Assets, Noninterest Expense to Average Assets, Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), Loan and Lease Loss Provision to Net Charge-Offs, and Earning Coverage of Net Loan Charge-Offs.

As for the Condition Ratios, the dashboard presents: Earning Assets to Total Assets, Loss Allowance to Noncurrent Loans and Leases, Noncurrent Loans to Loans, Net Loans and Leases to Deposits, Net Loans and Leases to Core Deposits, Leverage (Core Capital) Ratio, Common Equity Tier 1 Capital Ratio, Tier 1 Risk-Based Capital Ratio, and Total Risk-Based Capital Ratio.

As part of the analytical value provided by this tool, the Institute has developed the calculation of the industry average for each of the indicators included in the dashboard. This average provides an essential statistical reference framework for understanding the aggregate behavior of the sector and allows us to evaluate each institution in relation to the market in which it operates. This facilitates comparative analysis and monitoring of trends in the Puerto Rican banking industry.

“One of the fundamental contributions of this dashboard is to consolidate an extensive and continuous historical series, which allows us to identify structural trends and cycles in the banking industry. This long-term perspective is essential to understand the evolution of Puerto Rico's financial environment and to support more robust economic analyses,” said Dr. Ronald G. Hernández Maldonado, Manager of Statistical Projects at the Institute.

The dashboard is available in the Special Projects section of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics portal, under the name of “Financial Indicators-Banks” or through the following direct link: VVisualizing Financial Indicators - Banks.

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.

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