Data presented from the Report on Violent Deaths in Puerto Rico

639 homicides and 215 suicides were reported in Puerto Rico in 2021

The Puerto Rico Violent Death Notification System (PRVDRS) of the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute), presented data from the Puerto Rico Violent Deaths Report for 2021. The report reports that in 2021, 816 incidents of violent deaths occurred, with a total of 880 fatalities. Of the total number of violent deaths, 97% were distributed as 639 by homicides and 215 by suicides, with the remaining 26 violent deaths (3%) due to other causes.

In 2021, 72.6% of victims of violent deaths were incidents of single or multiple homicides and 24.4% were incidents of suicide. Two homicide-suicide incidents were reported, resulting in 4 fatalities. In addition, during this period, 2 violent deaths attributed to legal intervention (0.2%), three violent deaths from unintentional self-inflicted firearms (0.3%) and 21 violent deaths with undetermined intent (2.4%) were documented. In 2021, approximately 9 out of 10 victims of violent deaths (92.0%) were men. The crude rate of violent deaths for Puerto Rico in 2021 was 27.0 per 100,000 inhabitants, 52.5 in men and 4.0 in women.

Of the 880 violent deaths recorded in 2021, 639 were homicides (72.6%). The majority of homicides occurred between the ages of 15 and 39. In these age groups, 73.1% of all homicides occur among men and 59.5% among women. The primary mechanism of the homicides was firearms. In Puerto Rico, according to the report, 91.5% of homicides were committed with firearms, more than double the global average of 47.0%.

In 2021, the majority of homicides occurred in an environment of collective violence. In 358 of the 639 homicides (56.0%) recorded in 2021, they occurred in a context related to criminal groups, involved in the trafficking of illegal drugs.

In 2021, 31 fatal victims of family violence were reported. Family violence (violence between family members) includes child or adult abuse and violence against an intimate partner. The majority of these cases were related to violence in an intimate or former partner environment (20 cases, 64.5%). There were 11 fatal incidents among family members (35.5%). The majority of victims of intimate partner violence were women (18 cases, 90.0%). More than half of these women were victims of their current spouse or partner (61.1%), while 38.9% were victims of their ex-spouse or ex-partner. In addition, a firearm was used in 11 of the 18 femicides/femicides (61.1%).

As for suicides in Puerto Rico, the report highlights that the frequency is lower than that of homicides. However, as in homicides, suicides are more frequent in men (86.5%). In 2021, the crude suicide rate was 6.6 per 100,000 inhabitants, 12.0 in men (1 of 124 men) and 1.7 in women (1 of 774 women). The main mechanism was asphyxiation (64.5% in men and 55.2% in women).

Mariluz Bezares Salinas, Manager of Statistical Projects at the Institute and co-principal investigator of the Report on Violent Deaths in Puerto Rico, explained that the collection of this type of data could involve fieldwork that takes more than two years, from the moment the incident occurs until the collection and review of the data is completed.

“This system for reporting violent deaths is a reliable, complete and unique reference source that helps describe the context of violent deaths in the victim-aggressor relationship and the magnitude, trend and characteristics of violent deaths in Puerto Rico,” said Dr. Diego Zavala, epidemiologist and co-principal investigator of the PRVDRS.

For the Executive Director of the Institute, Dr. Orville M. Disdier, these statistics are one of the main tools to combat the phenomenon of violence in Puerto Rico. “These data, among others, serve as the basis for establishing effective measures for the prevention of violence in Puerto Rico, from multiple social, health and economic approaches. Our commitment at the Institute is to continue strengthening this statistical and epidemiological system, to continue improving the quality of this type of data,” argued Dr. Disdier.

The PRVDRS is an epidemiological surveillance system affiliated with the Institute of Statistics and designed to obtain a complete and standardized census of violent deaths in Puerto Rico. The PRVDRS began its participation in the National Violent Death Notification System (National Violent Death Reporting System, NVDRS) in September 2016, through a collaborative agreement granted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

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: https://estadisticas.pr/en/prvdrs 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.

‍

They facilitate access to data on femicides in Puerto Rico

Forty feminicides were reported in Puerto Rico between 2021 and 2022

April 26, 2023. San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute), through its Platform for Statistics and Indicators on Gender Violence, created a new section entitled “Femicide Statistics”, in order to facilitate access to data that allows, among others, the development of better strategies in the fight against violence against women. This was announced by the executive director of the Institute, Dr. Orville M. Disdier, who indicated that “this tool will allow greater visibility of statistics on femicide in Puerto Rico, as well as frequent and direct updates of the data.” This new section, like the other sections related to statistics on gender-based violence, is available at: Statistics on Gender-based Violence in Puerto Rico.

According to Mariluz Bezares, Manager of Statistical Projects at the Institute and Coordinator of the Puerto Rico Violent Death Notification System (PRVDRS), 23 femicides were registered in Puerto Rico in 2021 and 17 femicides were registered in 2022, for a total of 40. In 2021, six (6) of every 10 homicides of women were femicides and in 2022, three (3) of every 10 homicides of women were femicides.

Other data that emerges from this new tool include:

• Victims of femicide by firearms
  • In 2021, 61% of intimate femicides were with firearms.
  • In 2022, 77% of intimate femicides were with firearms.
• Intimate femicides by age group
  • In 2021, 61% of intimate femicides occurred among women aged 25 to 44.
  • In 2022, 54% of intimate femicides occurred among women aged 45 to 64.
• Nine (9) is the total number of femicides between 2021 and 2022 where the aggressor committed suicide after killing the victim.
  • Of these, eight (8) were in the context of intimate femicide and one (1) was in the context of family femicide.
• As of March of this year 2023, a total of four (4) cases of femicide have been registered.
• Of every 100,000 women living in Puerto Rico, two (2) died as a result of homicide.
• Violent deaths of women:
  • In 2021, there were 67 violent deaths of women and one (1) death of a trans person.
  • In 2022, 84 violent deaths of women were recorded.
• In 2022, 63% of women's violent deaths were due to homicide, and 36% were due to suicide.
• In 2022, there was one (1) undetermined violent death.
• In 2021, there was one (1) homicide of a trans man that is not related to gender reasons.
• In 2021, 50% of homicides of women were between the ages of 25 and 44.
• In 2022, 53% of female homicides occurred among women between 25 and 44 years old.

“At the Institute, we remain committed and are determined to explore all possible options and use innovative technology to support efforts to combat gender-based violence in Puerto Rico. It is essential to have accurate and up-to-date information on gender-based violence to design effective public policies that protect women and promote gender inclusion and equity in our society. “, said Disdier.

The data collected and presented by the Institute arise in part as a result of collaboration with various entities, including the Puerto Rico Police Bureau, the Institute of Forensic Sciences and the Demographic Registry of the Department of Health.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is a governmental entity in the executive branch, with fiscal and administrative autonomy, whose main purpose is to ensure that Puerto Rico has complete, reliable statistics that are quickly and universally accessible. To learn more about the Institute of Statistics, you can access the website: www.estadisticas.pr. On social media through Facebook (@estadisticas .pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR), Instagram (@institutodeestadisticas) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) accounts.

‍

Author: Alejandro López Flores and Ronald G. Hernández Maldonado

Date: November 6, 2025

‍

Poverty must be contextualized with social variables to understand and address it effectively. The Backwardness Index for Puerto Rico is an indicator composed of five variables that comprise two dimensions: Economic Mobility and Demography. This index seeks to measure poverty beyond income thresholds, and to incorporate elements of social backwardness and relative deprivation. An exploratory factor analysis was carried out on a set of variables to validate the construction of the multidimensional deprivation model, and to retain the variables that best captured the phenomenon of deprivation. Then, the retained variables were normalized using thresholds. The thresholds were obtained with data from the Puerto Rico Community Survey (ECPR or PRCS in English) and the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS in English). The scores of the different variables were aggregated by dimension, using the arithmetic mean, and the scores resulting from the dimensions were aggregated using the geometric mean. The values of the index lie between 0 and 1 where, the higher the score, the worse the result of the phenomenon.42 municipalities showed a decrease in their index score between the periods compared. Of these 42 municipalities, 22 showed a decrease in their score greater than 5%. Likewise, there are concentrations of municipalities with high Lagging Index scores in the central-southwest and southeastern areas of Puerto Rico.

‍