Cost-of-living gaps shape where Puerto Ricans live in U.S.
The Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics has released new data showing that millions of Puerto Ricans living in the United States are concentrated in metropolitan areas where day-to-day expenses exceed those in the San Juan-Bayamón-Caguas region.
The analysis found that the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro area, the largest stateside hub of Puerto Rican residents, has living costs more than 40% higher than those in Puerto Rico’s primary metro region.
Half of the 10 U.S. metro areas with the largest Puerto Rican populations also report higher cost-of-living indices than San Juan.
The Institute combined cost-of-living data from the Cost-of-Living Index survey with U.S. Census Bureau demographic information to map where Puerto Ricans reside and what it costs to live in those areas.
The disparities vary across regions. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, the second-largest population center of Puerto Rican residents, has a cost-of-living index 10.3% below the San Juan metro area. But other major destinations, including long-established enclaves in the Northeast, significantly exceed Puerto Rico’s benchmark.
The Institute’s updated third-quarter 2025 COLI results show that the San Juan-Bayamón-Caguas metro area recorded a cost of living 2.2% above the average of 290 participating urban regions.
Utilities were a major driver. Prices were 60.4% higher than the national urban average, placing the metro area seventh among all surveyed jurisdictions. Supermarket goods also ranked high, with prices 9.5% above the national average and 17th among all areas measured.
By contrast, the metro area remains more affordable in transportation, health care and miscellaneous goods, and falls near or below the midpoint in housing costs when compared with metros that also have large Puerto Rican populations.
Of the 10 stateside metropolitan areas with the largest Puerto Rican communities, six have higher housing cost indices than San Juan.
Institute officials said the comparisons are essential to understanding how economic pressures differ between island and stateside households.
“The cost of living is one of the most important economic issues for Puerto Rican society, as it determines the availability of household resources and the sustainability of their consumption patterns,” said Ronald G. Hernández-Maldonado, statistical project manager in economics.
“Integrating demographic and economic analyses among the Institute’s units strengthens our ability to more accurately assess the economic conditions of Puerto Rican households and generate solid empirical evidence on the contemporary challenges they face,” he said.
Lanselotte Oliveras-Vega, assistant for statistical projects in demography and geography, noted that 5,869,928 people who identify as Puerto Rican live in U.S. metropolitan areas.
“Of this total, four out of five live in [a Metropolitan Statistical Area] that is part of the COLI survey,” she said.
She said the New York-Newark-Jersey City and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford metros remain the largest population centers, reflecting older migration patterns in the Northeast and more recent settlement in Florida. She added that New York’s diminishing centrality for Puerto Rican residents “could be its high cost of living.”
Puerto Rico participates quarterly in the national COLI effort, which compares typical costs for moderately affluent professional and managerial households in nearly 300 urban areas.
