PRESS RELEASE

DR. ORVILLE M. DISDIER FLORES

INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Statistics Institute publishes the Creative Industries report 2017

It reveals that the total number of establishments dedicated to Creative Industries was 2,054, the majority (41.7%) belonging to the Arts sector.

San Juan, PR, December 17, 2018 — The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) today released its report of Creative Industries in Puerto Rico 2017, as part of public policy aimed at supporting the development of this sector, in accordance with Law No. 173 of October 13, 2014, also known as the Act to Promote Creative Industries. This law summarizes creative industries into the following groups:

• Design (graphic, industrial, fashion and interiors)
• Arts (music, visual and performing arts and publications)
• Media (application development, video games, online media, digital content and multimedia)
• Creative Services (architecture and creative education)

Here are some of the publication's key findings:

1. The total number of establishments dedicated to Creative Industries totaled 2,054. With 41.7% of the establishments, the Arts sector had the largest number of Creative Industries. Within this sector, the specific industries of Computer Systems Design were the one with the highest number with 195 establishments (10.2%).
2. The largest number of establishments (59.3%) was characterized by being in the category of 1 to 4 employees.
3. In terms of the number of employees per Creative Industry, the Media sector accounted for 46% (8,454) of the people employed in Creative Industries.
4. The largest number of employees is in the Computer Systems Design industry with 2,154 employees.
5. The Creative Industries were numerically dominated by the male population. The number of male population totaled 34,542 (63%) people, while the employed female population was estimated at 20,323 (37%) people.
6. The average annual wage for all industries was $28,680, the median was $23,650 and the minimum was $6,492.
7. The highest average annual wage was for the Software Publishing-related industry at $118,200.
8. The highest average annual salary, by occupation, was System Software Developers with $62.120.

Francisco Pesante González, author of the report, stated that “despite the fact that Puerto Rico has been in recession for more than 10 years, and has had to face the effects of hurricanes Irma and María, the 2017 indicators reveal consistent growth in exports from creative industries.”

For his part, Dr. Orville M. Disdier, Acting Executive Director, said: “With this third report prepared and published by the Institute of Statistics, we reiterate our commitment to join forces with the Institute of Culture and the Trade and Export Company, aimed at continuing the promotion and support of Creative Industries in Puerto Rico.”

To access the full report you can visit: Creative industries.

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.

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

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PRESS RELEASE

February 7, 2018

DR. MARIO MARAZZI-SANTIAGO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Executive Director of the Institute assures that it is a “dangerous precedent” and guarantees the loss of federal funds the merger of that body into the DDEC

San Juan, PR, February 7, 2018 — After asserting that its provisions are contrary to federal and state public policy aimed at preventing the manipulation of data and statistics, the executive director of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics (Institute), Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago, today expressed his opposition to House Project 1403 (P. de la C. 1403), which proposes the merger of the Institute into the Department of Economic Development and Commerce (DDEC) in order to outsource its functions.

“The provisions on the Institute of Statistics in P. de la C. 1403 are contrary to federal and state public policy aimed at avoiding the manipulation of data and statistics, to benefit the interests of current administrations or private interests with influence. In short, these constitute a dangerous precedent that destroys the credibility of a transparent, effective, objective and complete system of collecting statistical data for the benefit of Puerto Rico,” said Marazzi-Santiago during the presentation of his paper to the Special Commission for the Restructuring and Reorganization of Puerto Rico and the Chamber of Government Commission.

The Executive Director of the Institute anticipated that if the Reorganization Plan is approved and implemented, the Institute will also result in the loss of federal funds in that body. He recalled that on December 18, 2017, the New Government of Puerto Rico Act, No. 122-2017, was approved in order to maximize personal resources to the Executive Branch and the transfer, outsourcing and creation of new and more efficient government structures and agencies. Article 4.02 of that Act provides that “any change to a program or agency under this Act will be rescinded if the change results in the loss of federal funds in a program being used in Puerto Rico.”

He added that, likewise, Article 14 of Reorganization Plan No. 1 provides that any change to a program or agency under this Act “will be rescinded if the change results in the loss of federal funds in a program being used in Puerto Rico.” In the case of the Institute, the proposed consolidation with the DDEC and the subsequent outsourcing guarantee Puerto Rico's non-compliance with current agreements with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), under the National Violent Death Registration System, a federal competitive grant that the Institute won recently, said Dr. Marazzi-Santiago.

“We have a duty to alert this honorable Commission to take corrective action and amend P. de la C. 1403 accordingly. Specifically, in accordance with Article 4.02 of Law No. 122-2017, P. de la C. 1403 must be amended by deleting the entire chapter dedicated to the Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico,” said Dr. Marazzi-Santiago.

Dr. Marazzi-Santiago took advantage of his participation to propose three changes through which greater independence could effectively be achieved for the Institute, unlike the ill-advised measures contained in P. de la C. 1403. The following are the alternatives presented in his paper:

1. The Institute's Board has 1 member who is a government official. This may limit the Institute's independence. To address this detail, Act No. 209 can be amended so that no member of the Institute's Board of Directors is a government official. This ensures the Institute's ability to operate independently. They would all be private citizens, with no connection to current or previous political administrations, nominated on the basis of their personal and professional integrity and objectivity, and their educational preparation and demonstrated competence in the use of statistics, and will work on behalf of the users of the data, and not of other interests.
2. Exempt the Institute from administrative laws that hinder its ability to operate regardless of political influences and that increase bureaucracy, without implying that the Institute in any way abandon the healthy public administration policies that have distinguished its operations since its inception. This includes Laws 66- 2014, 3-2017, 8-2017 and 26-2017. The Institute must be able to appoint the experts it deems appropriate to complete its highly technical tasks and to manage its allocated budget without political influence.
3. Provide for all or some of the candidates for the Institute's Board to be proposed by professional and industry associations that represent these fields of expertise rather than government officials.

On the other hand, with regard to the Institute's financial self-sustainability, Dr. Marazzi-Santiago assured that a bill (P. del S. 12) already exists before the Legislative Assembly that proposes amendments to the Institute's Enabling Act and that would empower it and would allow it to obtain a greater portion of its income from sources outside the Government of Puerto Rico, so it is unnecessary to outsource the statistics system to achieve these purposes.

The Executive Director of the Institute also highlighted that there is broad and open opposition both at the local and federal levels to the provisions related to the Institute in Reorganization Plan No. 1 and in P. de la C. 1403, including the American Statistical Association, the largest professional association of statisticians in the world, as well as 15 Democratic and Republican congressmen, the Puerto Rico Private Sector Coalition, the Puerto Rico Transparency Network and about 2,000 people who formalized in just over a week your position through a cyber request on the portal change.org.

“As a result of the above-mentioned operational and fiscal independence, and of the sound public resource management policies adopted by the Institute since its inception, the Institute is one of very few governmental entities in Puerto Rico characterized by its efficiency and agility, by never having incurred a budget deficit, and by making the best possible use of the budgetary allocations it receives. In other words, the Institute is not part of the problem of bureaucracy, redundancy and inefficiency that Act No. 122-2017 and P. de la C. 1403 intend to address. On the contrary, the Institute is a public entity that serves as a model of public administration,” concluded Dr. Marazzi-Santiago.

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 IEPR has in its inventory, accessible through www.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 www.data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: www.indicadores.pr.

In addition, as the leading entity of Puerto Rico's SDC, the IEPR 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 and official statistics on Puerto Rico's decennial 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: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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Press Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes/787-688-0401

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PRESS RELEASE

PUERTO RICO STATE DATA CENTER NETWORK (SDC-PR)

The percentage of people with a high school level or higher in Puerto Rico increases

Comparison of the periods 2010-2014 and 2015-2019, indicates that 69 municipalities reflected an increase in this characteristic

San Juan, PR, December 10, 2020 — The U.S. Census Bureau today released the most recent data from the Puerto Rico Community Survey known as the Puerto Rico Community Survey. These statistics refer to information collected over a period of 5 years, from 2015 to 2019. The new publication provides data on demographic, 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 part of the State Data Center Network of the U.S. Census Bureau in Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) presents several interesting results:

1. In a comparison of the previous five-year period 2010-2014, compared to the most recent period 2015-2019, estimates indicate that:
   • In Puerto Rico's population aged 25 and over, the percentage of people with a high school education degree or higher increased from 23.6% to 25.9%, this difference being statistically significant.
   • At the municipal level, some 69 municipalities showed a similar increase in the number of people with at least a high school degree.
     • In 24 of the 69 municipalities, the differences were statistically significant.
     • The municipality of Ceiba showed no change (18.1%) during both periods.
     • On the other hand, the municipalities of Maricao, Juncos, Aguada, Arroyo, Cataño, Sabana Grande, Patillas and Maunabo showed a decrease in this characteristic within the educational level achieved. The difference between the municipality of Juncos was the only statistically significant difference.
2. In addition, at the level of Puerto Rico during the period 2015-2019, among the social characteristics it was estimated that:
   • 85,573 grandparents live with their grandchildren, of whom 38.6% are responsible for them.
   • Of the households in Puerto Rico (1,192,654), the following types are broken down:
     • 37.8% are from families of married couples,
     • 8.5% are from couples who live together,
     • in 16.3% of households, men are heads of household without a wife/partner (or) present, and of these 11.8% live alone,
     • and in 37.3% of households women are heads of household without a husband/partner (or) present, and of these 16.3% live alone.
   • Regarding the presence of computers and Internet access, 68.6% and 60.4% of households in Puerto Rico have a computer and a broadband Internet subscription, respectively.

“The comparison of the percentage of people with education, at least at the high school level, shows that most municipalities increased that percentage in the most recent period. However, the considerable differences between municipalities with this characteristic are striking, ranging from 8% in Maricao to 45% in Guaynabo.”, said Alberto L. Velázquez-Estrada, Manager of Statistical Projects at the Institute.

Tables with interesting characteristics can be accessed in the U.S. Census Bureau's data dissemination tool data.census.gov. In addition, as the leading entity of Puerto Rico's SDC, 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 and official statistics on Puerto Rico's decennial population and housing censuses, among others. The Puerto Rico SDC portal can be accessed through: censo.estadisticas.pr.

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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 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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For questions:

https://preguntas.estadisticas.pr/

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