Census data: PR population falls below 3.7 million; income, poverty rates hold

{AGP/PPD No Saben Gobernar. Lo único que los une es perseguir, discriminar y maltratar a los Pro-USA’s. Todo su tiempo y energías las usan para mentir con engañifas en la prensa mercenaria colonial, por lo que los anuncios de la Estrella son para uso local y no para mejorar la economía que han destrozado. AGP todavía No Da La Cara.}  

Census data: PR population falls below 3.7 million; income, poverty rates hold

By : KEVIN MEAD

Puerto Rico’s population has fallen below 3.7 million, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates releasedThursday that point to the ongoing exodus of people from the island amid a marathon economic downturn.

The 2012 American Community Survey pegged Puerto Rico’s population at 3.667 million, down from nearly 3.726 million in the 2010 Census and 3.808 million in the 2000 count.

The new data show Puerto Rico’s median household income and poverty rate were not statistically different from the year before, while the uninsured rate decreased.

The percentage of people living in poverty in Puerto Rico did narrow slightly last year as incomes edged up. Puerto Rico’s poverty rate was pegged at 44.9 percent in 2012, down from 45.6 percent in 2011.

The American Community Survey numbers show that roughly 1.632 million island residents were living below the federal poverty line last year, down from about 1.673 million in 2011.

The poverty rate in Puerto Rico remained far ahead of the poorest state, Mississippi, where 24.2 percent of the population was below the poverty line in 2012.

The current federal poverty line for a family of four with two minor children is $22,881 per year.

The median household income in Puerto Rico climbed to $19,429 last year, up from to $18,660 in 2011 and $19,370 in 2010, the new data show.

The percentage of Puerto Ricans on food stamps rose from 37.5 percent in 2011 to 38 percent in 2012. The national average was 13.6 percent.

Across the U.S., median household income was $51,371 in 2012 and the poverty rate was at 15.9 percent.

Puerto Rico has a higher rate of health insurance coverage than any state at 92.8 percent in 2012, up from 92.5 percent in 2011. However, Puerto Rico had the lowest rate of private health insurance at 40.8 percent in 2012, down from 40.6 percent in 2011 and well below the national average of 65.1 percent. More than 2 million Puerto Rico residents are covered by the island government’s Mi Salud (Medicaid) program.

The American Community Survey provides a wide range of important statistics about all communities in the country — including Puerto Rico. The survey gives communities the current information they need to plan investments and services. Retailers, homebuilders, police departments, and town 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 for most of the 40 topics it covers, such as educational attainment, housing, employment, commuting, language spoken at home, nativity, ancestry and selected monthly homeowner costs.

Much attention has been paid to Puerto Rico’s so-called “brain drain” problem that has seen tens of thousands of professionals and other working age adults leave the island for the U.S. mainland amid an ongoing recession dating back to 2006. The Pew Research Center now pegs the number of Puerto Ricans in the states at nearly 5 million.

Connected to the flight of young Puerto Ricans and professionals to the mainland is a falling local birth rate and a quickly aging population that economists and demographers warn will pose increasingly greater challenges to the island. Human resources executives note that those problems extend to island businesses and Wall Street credit ratings agencies have taken noted of the Puerto Rico’s dimming demographics.

Puerto Rico’s fertility and birth rates continued to fall last year, according to federal report released earlier this month that sheds light on a trend that is somewhat overlooked in the discussion over the island’s rapid population loss.

The island’s birth rate fell to 10.6 births per 1,000 total population in 2012, according to preliminary estimates released by the federal Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.

The birth rate was 12.4 at the start of the island island’s economic recession in 2006 and has fallen every year since. Only four states have lower birth rates. Experts believe that many women or couples who were out of work or had other money problems felt they couldn’t afford to start or add to their family.

Meanwhile, the fertility rate in Puerto Rico was 51.9 in 2012, down from 53.6 percent the previous year and from 57.2 in 2006. The fertility rate is the number of births per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years. Only three states had lower fertility rates in 2012.

There were 39,017 births in Puerto Rico in 2012, down from 48,597 births in 2006 and 41,080 in 2011.

The population drop also raises the prospect of less federal funding for Puerto Rico, increased pressure on the financially ailing public-pension system and a dramatically aging population with fewer financial resources.

Puerto Rico is among just two dozen national statistical areas around the world that lost population between 2005 and 2010, according to the United Nations.

As the global population tops 7 billion after an unprecedented surge of 1 billion over the past 12 years, Puerto Rico and 23 countries actually saw declines.

They are mostly former Soviet Republics and Eastern European countries. According to the latest U.N. count, of the 24 nations that registered population falls between 2005 and 2010 only Puerto Rico, Germany and some small island nations were not from this region.

kevin@caribbeanbusinesspr.com; cbprdigital@gmail.com