Puerto Rico’s population will dip under 3 million within a year — for the first time since the mid-1970s — if current rates of emigration continue, warns Jenniffer González-Colón, the island’s resident commissioner in Washington.
The Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics on Sunday released data confirming that 89,000 people emigrated from Puerto Rico to the U.S. mainland in 2015, a year when all migratory indicators reached new levels.
Puerto Rico has lost 177,392 residents either to migration or death in the last four years, putting pressure on the economy, as well as specific sectors, — such as retail — that will need to readjust their business models to provide for future consumer behavior.