America Counts: Stories Behind the Numbers

For the first time, the U.S. Census Bureau is releasing Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) for Puerto Rico — a measure of the commonwealth’s ability to withstand natural disasters and other challenges.

Restricted microdata from the 2019 1-year Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS) and small area estimation methods show Puerto Rico’s population had high levels of social vulnerability, indicating it would have trouble bouncing back in the event of a natural disaster.

Nearly half — 46.1% — of Puerto Rico’s population was estimated to have three or more risk factors ranging from poverty to age, more than double the estimated share (21.6%) of the stateside U.S. population in 2019.

This was the predominant risk group in Puerto Rico, followed by those with one-to-two risk factors (39.2%) and 0 risk factors (14.7%).

Continue reading to learn more about:

• Municipios and resilience
• The CRE for Puerto Rico
• CRE

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The Census Bureau’s Community Resilience Estimates program releases dataset and tool that help decision makers understand their communities’ vulnerabilities.

About America Counts

America Counts features stories on various topics including: 

• Families, Housing, Employment, Business, Education, Economy 
• Emergency Management, Health, Population, Income and Poverty

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