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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San Juan, Puerto Rico — July 10, 2024. The Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics released the results of the Cost of Living Index (COLI) for the first quarter of 2024, whose data show that the urban area of Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) of San Juan-Bayamón-Caguas, is ranked 82nd out of 301 urban areas in terms of overall cost of living in the United States, with a composite index of 102.3. The 15 municipalities that make up the San Juan-Bayamón-Caguas MSA are: Bayamón, Caguas, Canovanas, Carolina, Cataño, Cidra, Dorado, Gurabo, Guaynabo, Rio Grande, San Juan, Toa Alta, Toa Baja, Trujillo Alto and Vega Alta.

At the national level, the average cost of living is set at an index of 100. The composite index of 102.3 for the urban area of the San Juan-Bayamón-Caguas MSA indicates that living in this region is 2.3% more expensive than the average of the 301 participating urban areas nationwide.

The composite index is derived from six main categories of consumer spending, of which the following table presents the Rankings for the urban area of the San Juan-Bayamón-Caguas MSA. The combination of higher costs in supermarkets and utilities is partially offset by relatively low costs in health care and miscellaneous goods.

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About the Cost of Living Index (COLI):

COLI is a crucial tool for understanding regional differences in the costs of consumer goods and services. The indices are calculated based on data collected quarterly by different entities in each participating urban area. The COLI has been calculated in urban areas of the United States since 1968, using the methodology developed by the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER), a non-profit organization dedicated to research on community and economic development. The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute, together with the network of members affiliated with C2ER, is responsible for collecting prices for goods and services established by C2ER.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute has designed a comparative calculator for the cost of living between the urban area of the San Juan-Bayamón-Caguas MSA and the rest of the participating cities in the United States. This tool is available at: https://apps.estadisticas.pr/coli/.

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 the website: www.estadisticas.pr or 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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PRESS RELEASE June 26th, 2018
DR. MARIO MARAZZI-SANTIAGO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

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

We are waiting to hear the results of the conference committees so that we can know what will be approved. However, we take the liberty of making some statements in general terms about our feelings.

We are struck by the lack of legislation to advance the transparency agenda in this session. Added to that is the possible approval of P. de la C. 1403 with which, far from promoting greater transparency, the Legislative Assembly would seem to take several steps backwards on that important agenda.

In recent days, we have seen how municipal governments, on their own, have begun to take steps towards greater transparency in the way they manage public funds. It leaves deafening silence the months and years that the central government has ignored the possibility of participating free of charge in the same Puerto Rico Financial Transparency System, which municipal governments are now beginning to adopt.

In the same way, even though there is a virtual global scientific consensus in favor of allowing the Institute of Statistics to continue to carry out its functions independently, the Government also seems to ignore it.

On this occasion, not only in Puerto Rico but in the world, they are observing the steps taken by the Legislative Assembly in the coming days with respect to P. de la C. 1403. With the recent experience of the incomplete count of deaths caused by Hurricane Maria, the Government's commitment to transparency will once again be called into question with the approval of P. de la C. 1403.

It's important for me to stress that:

1. This issue has nothing to do with this server but with the defense of the institution's independence. If the Governor were available for dialogue and to desist from his intention to amend the Institute's Organic Law, this servant would leave the Executive Directorate of the Institute immediately.
2. The Institute has 2 administrative jobs. There is no way to achieve savings by merging administrative aspects, when the Institute maintains such a small administrative workforce.
3. There is no political partisanship in the Institute. For years, the Board of Directors with members of different ideologies have been able to work together, just like the professionals they are. This year, for reasons beyond our control, an attempt was made for the first time to introduce partisan politics into the Institute, but so far the Institute has successfully rejected this attempt.
4. In these 10 years, the Institute has achieved significant improvements in Puerto Rico's statistics, despite the obstacles presented by the government apparatus and partisan politics. The reorganization of the Institute will take us back to the last century, and there will be little that the federal government can do to remedy the situation.
5. Thousands of people, 47 world-renowned scientific organizations, 16 congressmen, the Private Sector Coalition, the Transparency Network, the National Academy for the Advancement of the Sciences, the American Statistical Association, the Royal Statistical Society and the Fiscal Oversight Board, among many others, have recommended that the Institute be maintained as an autonomous entity of the Government of Puerto Rico and independent, free from political intervention.

The approval of P. de la C. 1403 is a serious mistake. The Legislative Assembly should not participate in eliminating what it once created to protect the same legislators from being manipulated with erroneous or incomplete information that the Executive Branch controls to ensure that the measures that the current Government wishes are approved. Legislators have the floor.

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

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