Press Release

Exhortation to the deaf community and their families to complete registration to strengthen the information available on this population in Puerto Rico

 San Juan, Puerto Rico — March 18, 2026. The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute), in collaboration with the Deaf Community Liaison Office and several agencies of the Government of Puerto Rico, urged deaf people, people with partial hearing loss, deafblind people and their families to participate in an online registry that will allow the collection of key information about this population in Puerto Rico.

The initiative is developed in accordance with Executive Order OE-2026-002, issued by the governor of Puerto Rico, Jennifer A. González Colón, which instructs the Institute of Statistics, in collaboration with the Department of Health, the University of Puerto Rico, the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration, the Deaf Community Liaison Office and other entities, to carry out a formal effort to collect information about the deaf community in Puerto Rico and its characteristics, including the communication methods used.

As explained by the executive director of the Institute, Dr. Orville M. Disdier, community participation is essential for reliable information to guide public decision-making and the development of initiatives aimed at this population. “Having reliable information is essential to be able to develop public policies and services that respond to the real needs of the community. That's why we invite deaf people, those with hearing loss and their families to participate in this registry. Their participation will strengthen knowledge about this population and support informed decisions for the benefit of the deaf community in Puerto Rico,” said Disdier.

It takes three to five minutes to complete the registration. Participation is encouraged to:

• Deaf people
• People with partial (mild to moderately severe) hearing loss
• Deafblind people
• Families and caregivers who support people with these conditions

Interested persons can complete the registration at the following link: surveymonkey.com/r/deafspr

Information and guidance

Individuals or organizations interested in receiving guidance or collaborating in the dissemination of this information can contact:

Deaf Community Liaison Office (OECS)
Phone: 787-725-2333 ext. 203
VRS: 787-773-1487
Email: oecs@dpi.pr.gov
Website: www.dpi.pr.gov

Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics
Telephone: 787-819-0730
Email: preguntas@estadisticas.pr

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Statistics Institute announces opening of registration period for on-line workshops and Webinars

Free of charge starting September 6, 2022 and includes five different workshops and two Webinars for the development of skills

August 23, 2022 - The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) began the enrollment period, for the first semester, of the workshops on-line and Webinars for the new fiscal year 2023, whose purpose is to promote and provide theoretical and practical bases on issues related to statistics.

The offer, which starts on September 6, 2022, is free of cost and consists of five different workshops and two Webinars for the development of skills in managing different interfaces and programs for understanding, extracting, organizing, analyzing and presenting data. Some of these workshops are related to the management of the Census interface for accessing data and microdata (PUMS) of the Community Survey, the use of the QGIS program for spatial analysis and presentation of census data, the use of the RStudio tool for statistical analysis and Tableau Public as a tool for presenting data. The offer of workshops is mainly aimed at the development of government officials.

As for the offer of Webinars, these are open to the general public and are aimed at publicizing some of the Institute's programs and projects, such as the Cost of Living Index and the Puerto Rico Violent Death Surveillance System.

Dr. Francisco Pesante, coordinator of the Institute's academies and workshops program, said that “the Institute of Statistics has integrated the use of educational technologies on-line since 2015. In view of all the challenges presented to us by the coronavirus health emergency, we must recognize the advances in the adoption by the general population and public servants of electronic communication, meeting and education platforms on-line as part of the new normal. This allows us to overcome the barrier of time and geographical distance to offer a series of workshops and Webinars of benefit to promote the development of skills in the management of statistical resources”.

Those interested in the workshops and Webinars available can access the Academies and Sizes Program through https://bit.ly/iepr-talleres-webinar-2022-2 or write to the coordinator of the academies and workshops, Dr. Francisco Pesante, at francisco.pesante@estadisticas.pr.

Pre-enrollment must be carried out using the online enrollment system available at Academy. After the applicant completes the pre-enrollment form, the Institute will notify them by email if they were officially accepted and enrolled.

About the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics

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

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Contacts:

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

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

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Carolina, Puerto Rico. May 12, 2025. The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute held the forum “From Violence to Dialogue: Understanding and Preventing the Social Crisis”, an event that brought together leading professionals from various disciplines to analyze, from an evidence-based approach, the multiple expressions of violence faced by Puerto Rico.

The program included presentations on armed violence, drug trafficking, intimate partner violence, femicide, education, social inequality and suicide. Each presentation was based on statistical evidence and proposals to strengthen public policies aimed at prevention.

The keynote speech was given by Dr. César A. Rey Hernández, who presented a sociological perspective on the links between inequality, education and violence. In his presentation “Whoever opens a school door closes a prison”, Dr. Rey highlighted that Puerto Rico is facing a profound crisis of school dropout, youth migration, child poverty and the deterioration of the social fabric. He said that in Puerto Rico there are more drug outlets than public schools, reflecting the limited opportunities available to young people and the impact of an expanding informal and illegal economy. Dr. Rey emphasized the urgency of an educational project with a humanistic approach, capable of responding to the ethical and social challenges of the present.

Another of the forum's outstanding topics was suicide prevention, in which demographer Raúl Figueroa Rodríguez, consultant to the Commission for Suicide Prevention, offered an analysis of recent trends, revealing that Puerto Rico reports an annual average of 265 suicides, of which 85% are men, pointing out that the highest rates are recorded in municipalities in central Puerto Rico and in its island municipalities, and that more than 50% of cases are among people over 50 years of age. Figueroa presented the Puerto Rico Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index for Suicide (IVSS-PR), a tool developed to guide community interventions, resource allocation and evidence-based public policy formulation.

During the event, issues such as domestic violence, feminicide, possession of weapons, drug trafficking and the role of public health in preventing violence were also addressed. The program included the participation of experts in epidemiology, criminal justice, demography and officials from state and federal agencies, who shared updated data and multisectoral strategies.

“The purpose of this forum was to provide in-depth and rigorous analysis that serves as a basis for making informed decisions. Our responsibility as an Institute is to ensure that data is at the service of the life, security and dignity of all people in Puerto Rico,” said Dr. Orville M. Disdier Flores, Executive Director of the Institute of Statistics, who added that “this forum reinforces the Institute's commitment to continue generating and disseminating reliable information that allows us to understand the roots of violence, promote social dialogue and strengthen the formulation of evidence-based public policies.”

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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