PRESS RELEASE

Statistics Institute and Cities League sign collaboration agreement

San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 21, 2020 — The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) and the Puerto Rico Cities League, represented by their respective executive directors, Dr. Orville M. Disdier and planner Cristina M. Miranda Palacios, signed a collaboration agreement to share efforts and resources, in order to increase the knowledge and understanding of municipal employees about statistical methodologies, and the use and management of data.

The League of Cities is a non-profit entity that unites local governments in a non-partisan effort to improve the quality of life of the Puerto Rican people. Through this alliance, both entities will share information and resources. The League will collaborate by allowing access to the Institute to official, reliable and quality statistics and information about municipalities. For its part, the Institute will provide expert advice in the analysis of municipal data, particularly with the objective of developing metrics that allow comparing and generating indicators of socio-economic development, health and quality of life of its inhabitants.

“Part of the Institute's vision is to ensure that Puerto Rico has complete, reliable statistics that are quickly and universally accessible. This includes making these statistics available to government agencies themselves as part of their analysis and decision-making process, and for the benefit of cities,” said Dr. Disdier.

“Data is vital information in municipal management. They are useful for explaining the past, understanding the present and making future decisions that benefit the people who are the reason for the existence of municipalities. The League is the result of a meeting of wills, from which a non-profit, non-political partisan entity was born, focused on advancing the municipal agenda, which is the agenda of the people. This collaborative agreement with the Institute of Statistics is another step in that mission. It strengthens the path that we have started together, the municipalities and entities of the executive branch towards a better quality of life for Puerto Ricans,” said Miranda.

Some of the data that the Institute will be able to provide to the League are statistics on COVID-19, economic activity and demographic aspects in municipalities, as well as statistics produced by the US Census Bureau, among others. In addition, based on available resources, the Institute will provide training to municipal employees so that they can make better use of data and statistics.

The agreement, which will be in effect until June 2022, is an example of the initiatives that can be developed between governmental and non-governmental sectors for the benefit of Puerto Rico.

About the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics

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. 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 about 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 the website: https://estadisticas.pr.gov/. In addition, you can follow the Institute on social networks, through Facebook (@estadisticas .pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) accounts.

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Press Contact:

Idia Martínez

787-603-3200

imartinez@upfrontpr.net

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AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION REQUIRES ROSSELLÓ NOT TO DISMANTLE PUERTO RICO'S STATISTICS INSTITUTE

The executive director attacked the measure and invited the Government to take statistics seriously at this time of fiscal crisis

San Juan, PR, January 25, 2018 — The American Statistical Association, known as the American Statistical Association (ASA) today released a cyber petition entitled Clear Accounts: Let's Preserve the Autonomy and Impartiality of the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute in which he calls on both Governor Ricardo Rosselló and members of the Legislature to desist from transferring the functions of the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (IEPR) to the Puerto Rico Department of Economic Development and Trade in order to eventually outsource all the statistical functions of the Government of Puerto Rico.

The ASA request makes specific reference to Reorganization Plan No. 1 And to Senate Bill 809, which was published yesterday and signed by five scientists from prestigious entities such as Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Yale University.

In addition, he emphasizes that this measure “would dismantle the IEPR and its autonomy, and would jeopardize the transparent and impartial statistical analyses that are critical to the functioning of Puerto Rico and to decision-making in all sectors of society, public and private.”

To this end, the executive director of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago, insisted that everywhere in the world there is a recognition of the need for official statistics to be prepared by independent governmental entities so that they can carry out their functions in a manner totally disconnected from political influences.

The Government of Puerto Rico has a long history of producing, disseminating and presenting rigged, outdated, misinterpreted, and incomplete statistics, and then access to sources of information is not provided so that the information can be verified, either by the citizen or by a congressman. The reality is that statistics are a serious issue and it is time for our Government to take them seriously, particularly if it wants to address its own fiscal problem.

Marazzi Santiago assured that there is no way that the proposed reorganization of the Institute of Statistics, as a program within the Department of Economic Development and Trade or outsourced by it, will solve the serious problem of reliability and credibility that the Government of Puerto Rico has with its statistics.

“We appreciate the efforts of the American Statistical Association (ASA) to create a vehicle that allows data users to express themselves publicly about the proposed reorganization,” said Dr. Marazzi-Santiago.

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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. The Institute has in its inventory, accessible through www.estadisticas.pr, more than 300 statistical products. In addition, it is a guardian 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. 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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