P.R.’s net migration reached some 113K people in ’18, according to Census
During calendar year 2018, it was estimated that about 113,000 people migrated to other jurisdictions in the United States, in net terms, according to the latest data from the American Community Survey released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Migration from Puerto Rico to the mainland United States increased by 36.9% between 2017 and 2018, mostly fueled by the after-effect of the back-to-back hurricanes of 2017.
The estimated 113,000 people that migrated established a new record, the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics revealed based on the Community Survey data.
While 133,451 people left the island for the U.S. mainland, 20,900 people made the trip back to Puerto Rico, according to the American Community Survey.
Socioeconomic characteristics for Puerto Rico during 2018 showed that among the population aged 25 or older:
* 77.5% had completed high school education or higher;
* 26.7% high school level education or higher;
* 21.3% of the population (3,171,580) reported having a disability;
* Some 74,000 grandparents live with a grandchild younger than 18 and 35.9% of these are responsible for them;
* 39.7% and 43.1% of families and people, respectively. are under the poverty line;
* The median household income was $20,296;
* Of the 1,179,637 households, it was estimated that 71.6% had a computer, while 62.2% had access to broadband.
“Data from 2018 allows us to look into a full year of information with features and post hurricane indicators for Puerto Rico,” said Alberto L. Velázquez-Estrada, director of statistical projects at the Institute.
According to the most recent data, Puerto Rico’s poverty rate decreased by 1.3 percentage points, from 44.4% in 2017 to 43.1% in 2018.
However, poverty in Puerto Rico is still much higher than the U.S. national rate of 13.1% and is more than double the poverty rate of 19.7% in Mississippi, which had among the highest state poverty rates in 2018, the Census Bureau confirmed.
