FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: THURSDAY, JAN. 30, 2014

Income in Puerto Rico Holds Steady After Recession

Puerto Rico Community Survey Releases Statistics on Education,

Jobs and 40 More Topics

Statistics released today from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Puerto Rico Community Survey show that the median household income for Puerto Rico and most of its 10 largest municipios held steady after the most recent recession. Puerto Rico’s median household income was $19,518 during the post-recession period of 2010 to 2012, statistically unchanged from 2007 to 2009.

Among the island’s 10 largest municipios, only three showed statistical differences — all decreases — between the recession period of 2007-2009 and the post-recession period of 2010-2012. The median household income (in 2012 inflation-adjusted dollars) in the San Juan Municipio decreased from $24,565 during the recession to $22,734 post-recession, the Bayamón Municipio decreased from $26,760 to $23,848, and the Ponce Municipio decreased from $18,204 to $16,930.

The Puerto Rico Community Survey provides annual statistics on more than 40 topics, such as education, occupation, language, ancestry and housing costs, for every community in Puerto Rico on its interactive American FactFinder tool. The Puerto Rico Community Survey is similar to the American Community Survey, which can show statistics for Puerto Ricans living elsewhere in the U.S.  For example, Puerto Ricans in the New York metro area — which has the most Puerto Ricans of any metro area in the U.S. — had a median household income of $36,613.

“The Puerto Rico Community Survey is unique in that it gives detailed information for small geographic areas every year,” said Mario Marazzi, executive director of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics. “This information is used by researchers, students and private companies in their work and by the government to disperse federal funding to Puerto Rico.”

Among topics available with today’s release, the Puerto Rico Community Survey shows the variation in education levels and labor force participation across the island using data collected from 2010 to 2012:

Median Household Income

·         In Guaynabo Municipio, the household income was $33,848, among the highest for the island’s municipios. Lares Municipio had one of the lowest median household incomes with $11,353.

·         In the San Juan-Caguas-Guaynabo metro area, the household income was $21,611, among the highest for the island’s metro areas. The Yauco metro area had one of the lowest household incomes with $15,070.

Labor Force Participation

·         In Puerto Rico, 46.1 percent of the population 16 and older was in the labor force.

·         In Guaynabo, 57.7 percent of the population was in the labor force. This rate was among the highest for the island’s municipios. Lajas Municipio had one of the lowest labor force participation rates at 25.7 percent.

·         In the Fajardo metro area, 49.2 percent of the population was in the labor force. This rate was among the highest for the island’s metro areas. The San Germán-Cabo Rojo metro area had one of the lowest labor force participation rates at 33.3 percent.

Educational Attainment

·         In Puerto Rico, 23.2 percent of the population 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree or higher.

·         In Guaynabo, 43.7 percent of the population had a bachelor’s degree or higher. This rate was among the highest for the island’s municipios. Lajas Municipio had one of the lowest rates at 11.6 percent.

·         In the San Juan-Caguas-Guaynabo metro area, 25.0 percent of the population had a bachelor’s degree or higher. This rate was among the highest for the island’s metro areas. The Yauco metro area had one of the lowest rates at 16.6 percent.

School Enrollment

·         In Puerto Rico, 66.5 percent of the population 3 and older enrolled in school were in kindergarten to 12th grade. Among them, 77.1 percent were enrolled in public school, while 22.9 percent were enrolled in private school.

·         Comerío Municipio had among the highest rates of kindergarten to 12th grade students enrolled in public school at 97.5 percent and Guaynabo Municipio had among the lowest at 50.6 percent.

·         The Yauco metro area had among the highest rates of kindergarten to 12th grade students enrolled in public school at 91.7 percent and the San Juan-Caguas-Guaynabo metro area had among the lowest at 74.1 percent.

Puerto Ricans Living in the U.S.

The American Community Survey also has statistics regarding Puerto Ricans living in the United States.  For example:

·         For Puerto Ricans living in the Miami metro area, the household income was $47,516. In the Chicago metro area, the median household income was $43,067 and in the Orlando metro area the median household income was $37,262. The income for the Orlando and New York areas were not statistically different from each other.

·         For Puerto Ricans living in the Miami metro area, 67.7 percent were in the labor force, compared with 64.7 percent in the Chicago metro area and 64.2 percent in the New Haven, Conn., metro area.  The rates for the Chicago and New Haven areas were not statistically different from each other.

·         For Puerto Ricans living in the Miami metro area, 22.2 percent had a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 18.3 percent in the Orlando metro area and 16.2 percent in the Tampa metro area. The rates for the Orlando and Tampa areas were not statistically different from the rate for the Yauco metro area, and the rates for Puerto Rico and the Miami metro area were not statistically different from each other. 

More Information

The release includes:

·         2012 one-year statistics for areas with populations of 65,000 or more.

·         Three-year statistics derived from data collected from 2010 to 2012 for geographic areas with populations of 20,000 or more.

·         Five-year statistics covering 2008-2012 for all areas regardless of population size.

Additionally, Census Explorer, a new interactive mapping tool, paints a portrait of how neighborhoods within Puerto Rico have changed over the past two decades.

About the Puerto Rico Community Survey

The Puerto Rico Community Survey provides a wide range of important statistics about all communities in the island. The Puerto Rico Community Survey gives communities the current information they need to plan investments and services. Retailers, homebuilders, police departments, and city planners are among the many private- and public-sector decision makers who count on these annual results.

The survey is the only source of local statistics with popular topics that covers educational attainment, housing, employment, commuting, veteran status, health insurance and selected monthly homeowner costs. With this release, the statistics are now available in Spanish. They were previously released in English.

More information about Puerto Rico and the nation’s social, economic and housing characteristics can be found on the Census Bureau’s American FactFinder website.

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Rosa Rendon

                                                                                                  CB14-17

Public Information Office

301-763-3030

E-mail: <pio@census.gov>