Puerto Rico Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Population makeup=== {{main|Puerto Ricans}} {{bar box |title=Racial and Ethnic Composition in Puerto Rico (2020 Census)<ref name="2020CensusData"/> |title bar=#fff |left1=Ethnicity |float=left |bars= {{bar percent|[[White Puerto Ricans|White]]|Blue|17.1}} {{bar percent|[[Afro-Puerto Ricans|Black]]|Black|7.0}} {{bar percent|[[Asian Puerto Ricans|Asian]]|yellow|0.1}} {{bar percent|[[Multiracial Americans|Two or more races]]|green|49.8}} {{bar percent|[[Native Americans in the United States|American Indian]]|red|0.5}} {{bar percent|[[Pacific Islander Americans|Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander]]|orange|0.0}} {{bar percent|Other races|#9999FF|25.5}} }} Puerto Rico was 98.9% Hispanic or Latino in 2020, of that 95.5% were [[Puerto Ricans|Puerto Rican]] and 3.4% were Hispanic of non-Puerto Rican origins. Only 1.1% of the population was non-Hispanic.<ref>{{cite web | author= ((U.S. Census Bureau)) | title= Profile of general population and housing characteristics | date= 2020 | work= Decennial Census, DEC Demographic Profile, Table DP1, 2020 | type= data table | access-date= November 5, 2023 | url= https://data.census.gov/table/DECENNIALDP2020.DP1?text=Decennial+census&t=Race+and+Ethnicity&g=040XX00US72 | archive-date= 4 October 2023 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231004045500/https://data.census.gov/table/DECENNIALDP2020.DP1?text=Decennial+census&t=Race+and+Ethnicity&g=040XX00US72 | url-status= live }}</ref> The population of Puerto Rico according to the 2020 census was 3,285,874, an 11.8% decrease since the [[2010 United States Census]].<ref name="Census2020-Tab2"/> The commonwealth's population peaked in 2000, when it was 3,808,610, before declining (for the first time in census history) to 3,725,789 in 2010.<ref name="Wall">{{cite web |url=http://www.caribbeanbusinesspr.com/news/wall-street-eyes-pr-population-loss-79553.html |title=Wall Street eyes PR population loss |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105165520/http://www.caribbeanbusinesspr.com/news/wall-street-eyes-pr-population-loss-79553.html |archive-date=5 November 2013 |work=Caribbean Business |date=14 December 2012 |access-date=14 December 2012}}</ref> Emigration due to economic difficulties and natural disasters, coupled with a low birth rate, have caused the population decline to continue in recent years.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/puerto-rico-us-territory-crisis |title=Puerto Rico: A U.S. Territory in Crisis |last1=Cheatham |first1=Amelia |last2=Roy |first2=Diana |work=Council on Foreign Relations |date=29 September 2022 |access-date=27 March 2023 |archive-date=3 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231103042405/https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/puerto-rico-us-territory-crisis |url-status=live }}</ref> Censuses of Puerto Rico were completed by Spain in 1765, 1775, 1800, 1815, 1832, 1846 and 1857, yet some of the data remained untabulated and was not considered to reliable, according to [[Irene Barnes Taeuber]], an American demographer who worked for the [[Office of Population Research]] at [[Princeton University]].<ref name="Taeuber">{{cite book | last=Taeuber | first=Irene B. | title=General Censuses and Vital Statistics in the Americas | publisher=United States Bureau of the Census | year=1943 | isbn=978-0-87917-036-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rvHgRN6N_aMC&pg=PA147 | access-date=24 March 2023 | page=147 | archive-date=24 March 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324133921/https://books.google.com/books?id=rvHgRN6N_aMC&pg=PA147 | url-status=live }}</ref> Continuous European immigration and high [[natural increase]] helped the population of Puerto Rico grow from 155,426 in 1800 to almost a million by the close of the 19th century. A census conducted by royal decree on 30 September 1858, gave the following totals of the Puerto Rican population at that time: 341,015 were [[free people of color|free colored]]; 300,430 were [[white people|white]]; and 41,736 were [[slaves]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Van Middeldyk |first=R. A |title=The History of Puerto Rico |url=http://www.fullbooks.com/The-History-of-Puerto-Rico.html |access-date=29 May 2008 |chapter=Part 4 |chapter-url=http://www.fullbooks.com/The-History-of-Puerto-Rico4.html |isbn=978-0-405-06241-4 |year=1975 |publisher=Arno Press |archive-date=7 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080507104158/http://www.fullbooks.com/The-History-of-Puerto-Rico.html |url-status=live }}</ref> A census in 1887 found a population of around 800,000, of which 320,000 were black.<ref name="Trove">{{cite news | title=Puerto Rico | newspaper=Kalgoorlie Western Argus (WA : 1896 - 1916) | date=28 April 1898 | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article32192140 | access-date=29 October 2019 | archive-date=28 July 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728043247/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/32192140 | url-status=live }}</ref> [[File:Puerto Rico single age population pyramid 2020.png|thumb|[[Demographics of Puerto Rico|Population age pyramid]] of Puerto Rico in 2020.]] During the 19th century, hundreds of families arrived in Puerto Rico, primarily from the [[Canary Islands]] and [[Andalusia]], but also from other parts of Spain such as [[Catalonia]], [[Asturias]], [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]] and the [[Balearic Islands]] and numerous Spanish loyalists from Spain's former colonies in South America. Settlers from outside Spain also arrived in the islands, including from [[Corsica]], [[France]], [[Lebanon]], [[Portugal]], [[Irish immigration to Puerto Rico|Ireland]], [[Scotland]], [[German immigration to Puerto Rico|Germany]] and [[Italian people|Italy]]. This immigration from non-Hispanic countries was the result of the ''Real Cédula de Gracias de 1815'' ([[Royal Decree of Graces of 1815]]), which allowed European Catholics to settle in the island with land allotments in the interior of the island, provided they paid taxes and continued to support the Catholic Church. Between 1960 and 1990, the census questionnaire in Puerto Rico did not ask about race or ethnicity. The [[2000 United States Census]] included a racial self-identification question in Puerto Rico. According to the census, most Puerto Ricans identified as white and Latino; few identified as black or some other race. ====Population genetics==== [[File:Population Density, PR, 2000 (sample).jpg|thumb|Population density, Census 2000]] A group of researchers from Puerto Rican universities conducted a study of [[mitochondrial DNA]] that revealed that the modern population of Puerto Rico has a high genetic component of Taíno and [[Guanches|Guanche]] (especially of the island of [[Tenerife]]).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://lacomunidad.elpais.com/amazonasfilm/2009/7/12/un-estudio-del-genoma-taino-y-guanche-adn-o-dna-primera-parte|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100206133647/http://lacomunidad.elpais.com/amazonasfilm/2009/7/12/un-estudio-del-genoma-taino-y-guanche-adn-o-dna-primera-parte|archive-date=6 February 2010|title=La Comunidad » Documentales Gratis » Un Estudio del Genoma Taino y Guanche. ADN o DNA. Primera parte|date=6 February 2010}}</ref> Other studies show Amerindian ancestry in addition to the Taíno.<ref name="native">{{Cite journal |doi=10.1353/hub.2001.0056 |last1=Martínez-Cruzado |first1=J. C. |last2=Toro-Labrador |first2=G. |last3=Ho-Fung |first3=V. |last4=Estévez-Montero |first4=M. A. |last5=Lobaina-Manzanet |first5=A. |last6=Padovani-Claudio |first6=D. A. |last7=Sánchez-Cruz |first7=H. |last8=Ortiz-Bermúdez |first8=P. |last9=Sánchez-Crespo |first9=A. |title=Mitochondrial DNA analysis reveals substantial Native American ancestry in Puerto Rico |journal=Human Biology |volume=73 |issue=4 |pages=491–511 |year=2001 |pmid=11512677|s2cid=29125467 }}</ref><ref name="Madrigal">{{cite book |first=Lorena |last=Madrigal |title=Human biology of Afro-Caribbean populations |publisher=Cambridge University Press, 2006 |page=121 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ddnkIaZRHxEC&pg=PA121 |isbn=978-0-521-81931-2 |year=2006 |access-date=18 October 2020 |archive-date=11 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111012531/https://books.google.com/books?id=ddnkIaZRHxEC&pg=PA121#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bonilla |year=2004 |title=Ancestral proportions and their association with skin pigmentation and bone mineral density in Puerto Rican women from New York City |journal=Hum Genet |volume=115 |issue=1 |pages=57–58 |doi=10.1007/s00439-004-1125-7|display-authors=etal |pmid=15118905|title-link=New York City |s2cid=13708800 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Martinez-Cruzado |year=2005 |title=Reconstructing the population history of Puerto Rico by means of mtDNA phylogeographic analysis |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=128 |issue=1 |pages=131–55 |pmid=15693025 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.20108|display-authors=etal}}</ref> One genetic study on the racial makeup of Puerto Ricans (including all races) found them to be roughly around 61% [[West Eurasian]]/[[North Africa]]n (overwhelmingly of Spanish provenance), 27% [[Sub-Saharan African]] and 11% [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/reference-populations/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140720133124/https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/reference-populations/ |archive-date=20 July 2014 |work=The Genographic Project |title=Your Regional Ancestry: Reference Populations}}</ref> Another genetic study, from 2007, claimed that "the average genomewide individual (i.e., Puerto Rican) ancestry proportions have been estimated as 66%, 18%, and 16%, for European, West African, and Native American, respectively."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tang |first1=Hua |last2=Choudhry |first2=Shweta |last3=Mei |first3=Rui |last4=Morgan |first4=Martin |last5=Rodríguez-Clintron |first5=William |last6=González Burchard |first6=Esteban |last7=Risch |first7=Neil |title=Recent Genetic Selection in the Ancestral Admixture of Puerto Ricans |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |date=1 August 2007 |volume=81 |issue=3 |pages=626–633 |doi=10.1086/520769 |pmid=17701908 |pmc=1950843}}</ref> Another study estimates 63.7% European, 21.2% (Sub-Saharan) African, and 15.2% Native American; European ancestry is more prevalent in the West and in Central Puerto Rico, African in Eastern Puerto Rico, and Native American in Northern Puerto Rico.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Via |first1=Mark |last2=Gignoux |first2=Christopher R. |last3=Roth |first3=Lindsey |last4=Fejerman |first4=Laura |last5=Galander |first5=Joshua |last6=Choudhry |first6=Shweta |last7=Toro-Labrador |first7=Gladys |last8=Viera-Vera |first8=Jorge |last9=Oleksyk |first9=Taras K.|last10=Beckman|first10=Kenneth |last11=Ziv |first11=Elad |last12=Risch |first12=Neil |last13=González Burchard |first13=Esteban |last14=Nartínez-Cruzado |first14=Juan Carlos |title=History Shaped the Geographic Distribution of Genomic Admixture on the Island of Puerto Rico |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=e16513 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0016513 |pmid=21304981 |pmc=3031579 |year=2011 |bibcode=2011PLoSO...616513V|doi-access=free }}</ref> ====Literacy==== A [[Pew Research Center|Pew Research]] survey indicated an adult literacy rate of 90.4% in 2012 based on data from the [[United Nations]].<ref name="auto3">{{cite web |url=http://www.globalreligiousfutures.org/countries/puerto-rico#/?affiliations_religion_id=0&affiliations_year=2010 |title=Demography – Puerto Rico |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=January 2017 |website=Pew Research |publisher=Pew Research, DC |access-date=18 February 2017 |archive-date=11 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190511221913/http://www.globalreligiousfutures.org/countries/puerto-rico#/?affiliations_religion_id=0&affiliations_year=2010 |url-status=live }}</ref> ====Life expectancy==== Puerto Rico has a life expectancy of approximately 81.0 years according to the CIA World Factbook, an improvement from 78.7 years in 2010. This means Puerto Rico has the second-highest life expectancy in the United States, if territories are taken into account.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/puerto-rico/|title=The World Factbook: Central America: Puerto Rico |website=Central Intelligence Agency|access-date=28 December 2019|archive-date=5 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210105163943/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/puerto-rico/|url-status=live}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page