Puerto Rico’s population shrinks by 11.8% since 2010
The U.S. Census Bureau disclosed that Puerto Rico’s resident population was 3,285,874 as of April 1, 2020, down 11.8% from 3,725,789 people included in the 2010 Census.
“We’re proud to release these first results from the 2020 Census today. These results reflect the tireless commitment from the entire Census Bureau team to produce the highest-quality statistics that will continue to shape the future of our country,” acting Census Bureau Director Ron Jarmin said.
“And in a first for the Census Bureau, we are releasing data quality metrics on the same day we’re making the resident population counts available to the public. We’re confident that today’s 2020 Census results meet our high data quality standards,” he said.
The sharp drop in the last decade could respond to the outmigration reported after Hurricane María struck in September 2017, difficult economic conditions and as a result of the 2020 earthquakes. It may have also had a correlation with the disruption in the delivery of the questionnaires due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The reduction in the island’s population was the highest in the United States, following West Virginia, which saw a 3.2% drop, Mississippi (-0.2%) and Illinois (-0.1%), according to the agency.
As of April 1, the resident population of the United States was 331,449,281.
As for the economic findings included in the US Census report, they show that 52% of the island’s total population is female, while 21.3% are people over 65 years of age.
There were nearly 1.2 million households accounted for between 2015 and 2019, of which 68.8% had a computer, and another 60.4% had a broadband internet subscription.
The median household income during that same period was set at $20,539, while people living in poverty were calculated at 43.5%.
As for businesses, the Census reported that there were nearly 45,000 establishments in 2019, with a total annual payroll of $18.5 billion.
