Recognition by CDC of the Institute's Violent Death Surveillance System

Announcements
IEPR
26 December 2025

PRESS RELEASE
DR. MARIO MARAZZI‐SANTIAGO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

May 24, 2018

The Puerto Rico Violent Death Surveillance System developed by the Institute is recognized as the best new program by the Division of Violence Prevention from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

San Juan, PR, May 24, 2018 — The Puerto Rico Violent Death Surveillance System (PRVDRS, in English) developed and established by the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute), thanks to a proposal approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has been recognized as the best of the new programs established by the Division of Violence Prevention of this entity.

This was announced by the Executive Director of the Institute, Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago, who said he was pleased with the recognition and extraordinary work of the team in charge of the Institute, led by Dr. Idania Rodríguez Ayuso, the Institute's senior manager of Statistical Projects, and Dr. Diego E. Zavala, co-researcher of the project. “This important recognition demonstrates that statistical information can be collected in an agile, timely and systematic manner by government entities in Puerto Rico and that it complies with federal requirements. We are grateful for this recognition, which has been the result of the efforts of a committed and excellent work team. We are also grateful for the collaboration of the Demographic Registry of the Department of Health, the Puerto Rico Police and the Forensic Science Bureau, which, with the provision of the necessary data for its operation, are also part of this important achievement,” said Dr. Marazzi-Santiago.

The PRVDRS is an active, continuous epidemiological surveillance system that collects information on violent deaths. It uses multiple sources of data and incorporates them into a single database, using the ecological model of public health. It began in September 2016 and began collecting data on violent deaths starting in January 2017. The proposal, funded by the CDC, lasts 5 years.

Data is collected in a systematic way to be a single reference base with complete and accurate data. They are obtained from the Puerto Rico Police Bureau, the Forensic Science Bureau and the Department of Health's Demographic Registry. The system seeks to achieve standardization using specific definitions and providing comprehensive information on the context in which deaths occur. This will help identify risk factors (e.g. job loss, mental health problems, family problems and other stressors).

The PRVDRS will also provide data related to the magnitude of violence and trends at different geographical levels. All of this will be essential to support the monitoring and evaluation of violence prevention programs and strategies in Puerto Rico. The PRVDRS has an Advisory Board and a Review Group. The latter discusses the discrepancies found in data collection. In addition, it is part of the Institute and currently has three employees assigned to it and a total of 12 people in total working on the project.

Based on data from the Bureau of Forensic Sciences, the homicide rate in Puerto Rico in 2014 was 20.11 per 100,000 inhabitants, four times higher than the equivalent rate for the United States (4.8). The latest data available for the United States is from 2014 and is based on information provided by 18 states, representing 22.5% of the United States population. For more information about the CDC's NVDRS you can access the following link: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/nvdrs/stateprofiles.html

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 https://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 https://data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: https://www.indicadores.pr.

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 on 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 our website: https://estadisticas.pr.gov. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook accounts (https://www.facebook.com/estadisticas.pr), Twitter (https://twitter.com/estadisticaspr) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/instituto-de-estadisticas-de-puerto-rico).

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Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes (787) 688-0401

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Institute of Statistics publishes Creative Industries of Puerto Rico 2016

INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS PUBLISHES CREATIVE INDUSTRIES OF PUERTO RICO 2016

This is the second statistical report made on the subject and it shows that the largest number of related establishments (59%) has between 1 and 4 employees

San Juan, PR, May 17, 2018 — The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) released today Creative Industries in Puerto Rico 2016, which is the second publication that presents statistics on creative industries, with the purpose of supporting their development, in accordance with Law No. 173 of October 13, 2014, also known as the Law to Promote Creative Industries.

The purpose of this second report is to capture some indicators that in the long term serve as metrics of the execution of Creative Industries in the production of goods and services for the local market and their export. There is currently no consensus on the type of industries that should be classified as “creative”. However, Article 3 of Law 173-2014 defines creative industries based on the following list of industries:

  • 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)

The published compendium presents all the statistics already available on these industries. But, in addition, statistics are presented on several additional industries that have been classified as “creative” in previous UNESCO studies, among others, and these, together with those defined by Law 173-2014, are referred to in the report as “Law 173+”:

  • other Arts (cinematography, jewelry, sewing)
  • other media (radio, television, cable, books)
  • other Creative Services (advertising, drawing)
  • Heritage (libraries, museums and historic sites)

Below are some of the publication's key findings:

1) The largest concentration of Creative Industries in the Ley 173+ group took place in establishments with 1 to 4 employees, who brought together 58.5% of them. An experience that was most strongly repeated in the sectors of Law 173, which comprised 71.7% of the establishments (County Business Patterns, CBP). In the case of 173+ sectors, those dedicated to Jewelry, followed by Computer system design and Advertising agencies (in that order) were the ones with the highest number of establishments in the sources consulted. In the specific case of Law 173, it was the establishments dedicated to System design Computer scientists and Computer Programming Services (CBP and Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, QCEW).

2) The line of number of employees by industry, for the sectors of Law 173+, followed the same pattern as the previous line, with establishments dedicated to Jewelry, Computer system design and Agencies of publicity (in that order) those who employed the largest number of employees. The second of these, Computer system design, was the one who occupied the first position under Law 173, followed by Computer Programming Services (QCEW).

3) In the analysis of number of employees by occupation The first position in the entirety of Law 173+ corresponds to Wired telecommunications service operators with 3,148 employees, followed by those dedicated to Computer system design, with 2,030 employees. For Law 173, specifically, people employed in Computer system design (2,030) and Services of computer programming (1,842) ranked first and second (QCEW).

4) In the distribution of employees by sex, the industry of the Ley 173+ group with the highest percentage of employed women was Libraries and archives (87%) and in the lower position was the Sound industry with 12%. The most even distribution by sex occurred in Advertising Industries with 50%. In the case of jobs grouped under Law 173, the jobs of Editing and dissemination of content over the internet and search services was the one with the highest percentage of female participation (62%). The jobs of Software publishing was the one with the most even distribution (42%), being those of the Sound industry, mentioned above, those with the lowest female participation (Public Use Microdata Sample of the Puerto Rico Community Survey, PRCS-PUMS).

5) For both Law 173+ and Law 173 sectors, the Average revenue by industry The highest was $118,665 for the line of Software publishing (QCEW).

6) For both Law 173+ and Law 173 sectors, the Average annual wage by occupation The highest corresponded to System software developers with $67,530 (Occupational Employment Statistics, OES).

7) In the presentation of creative establishments per inhabitant for the Ley 173+ group The median number of establishments grouped under the creative industries by municipalities It was 2 establishments per 10,000 inhabitants. San Juan had approximately 25 establishments per 10,000 inhabitants (QCEW).

8) As for the value of imports and exports of assets of the Creative Industries in the Law 173+ sectors, in 2016 there was a trade balance of -$200 million (Institute).

To view the full report you can visit: Creative-Industries-of-Puerto Rico-2016.

In this second edition of the Creative Industries in Puerto Rico report, the secondary data sources and methodologies developed in the first report continued to be used. Industrias_Creativas_en_Puerto_Rico_2014.pdf. Since most of the available sources provide data up to 2016, it was decided to title this report with that reference date.

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 https://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 https://data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: https://www.indicadores.pr.

In addition, as the leading entity of the Puerto Rico SDC, the IEPR manages the SDC portal, where you can find 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 (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 our website: https://estadisticas.pr.gov. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook accounts (https://www.facebook.com/estadisticas.pr), Twitter (https://twitter.com/estadisticaspr) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/instituto-de-estadisticas-de-puerto-rico).

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