Puerto Ricans in the United States

This article is about the "Stateside Puerto Ricans" or individuals of Puerto Rican territorial origin living in the 50 states of the United States of America. For the broader category of Puerto Ricans, see Puerto Rican people.

Stateside Puerto Ricans
Puertorriqueños Continental

Val Ramos · Sonia Sotomayor · Luis Guzmán Nydia Velázquez · Samuel A. Ramirez, Sr. · Jimmy Smits Jennifer Lopez · Joseph M. Acaba · Ana Ortiz
Total population
Puerto Rican 4,623,716 Americans (1.5% of total United States Stateside population)
Regions with significant populations
Predominantly on the East Coast (both the Northeast and the Southeast) and the Midwest
Languages
Spanish and English
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic, Minority Protestant
Related ethnic groups
Criollos · Mestizos · Mulattos · Lucumi · Taíno · African people · Europeans

Stateside Puerto Ricans (or "Puerto Rican Diaspora," "Nuyoricans" for those born in New York, "stateside or mainland Puerto Ricans," or in Spanish: puertorriqueños estadounidenses ) are American citizens of Puerto Rican origin, including those who migrated from Puerto Rico to the United States and those who were born outside of Puerto Rico in the United States. Puerto Ricans form the second largest Hispanic group in the United States. Most stateside Puerto Ricans descend from a combination of Europeans (especially Spanish), the indigenous Taino peoples, and Africans, with later smaller waves of immigrants from Latin America, a small number of Asians (mostly Chinese), and non-Hispanic people from the United States.

Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth or unincorporated territory of the United States. The residents of the island have been United States citizens since 1917, through the Jones-Shafroth Act of the United States Congress.

There are over four million Puerto Ricans living stateside, with reports that this number exceeded the population in Puerto Rico for the first time in 2003. Despite new demographic trends, New York City continues to be the home of the largest Puerto Rican community in the United States, with Philadelphia second, but Puerto Ricans live in all 50 states and the territories, with large numbers in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The strong presence of Puerto Ricans in Hawaii, Arizona, and California is partially due to previous generations moving to those states in the early 20th century to work as farm laborers.

Introduction

Stateside Puerto Ricans have been receiving attention recently in the media as a potential swing vote, especially in Florida, promoting greater interest in this community. While Puerto Rican-Americans have a long history of fighting against prejudice and ignorance in the United States, there is a longstanding concern that the people of Puerto Rico are not as informed as they should be about the history and challenges faced by their compatriotas who have entered the United States since the mid-19th century.

The Puerto Rican community is experiencing dramatic demographic changes. According to the latest figures from the Census Bureau (unpublished data from their Current Population Survey), the stateside Puerto Rican population in 2003 was estimated at 3,855,608. On the other hand, the Census Bureau estimated that the total population of Puerto Rico was 3,878,532 in 2003. The 2000 Census count found that Puerto Ricans constituted 95.1 percent of the island’s population (other Latinos made up another 3.4 percent, and 1.2 percent were non-Latinos) therefore in 2003, the island’s residents who identified themselves as Puerto Rican was 3,692,362. Thus, in 2003, it was estimated for the first time that there were 4.4 percent more Puerto Ricans residing in the U.S. than on the island.

This development was a major turning point in Puerto Rican demographics history. The phenomenon of a country’s diaspora outnumbering its own population is unprecedented in the hemisphere. By comparison, the largest ethnic group in the United States, the German Americans, is 52.1 percent the size of the population of Germany. Among Spanish speakers, Mexican Americans make up the largest group by far (over 26 million in 2004), representing the largest population outside of Mexico with 25.4 percent.

To give a sense of the scale of this demographic phenomenon, the only comparable situation would be that of the Irish. As a result of the catastrophic potato famine of the 19th century and other developments, in 2004, the Irish American population was close to six times (594.7 percent) as large as the combined populations of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The implications are not lost on the government of Puerto Rico. The government has designed programs to reach out to the Puerto Rican communities in the United States in cultural affairs, civic participation and other areas, recognizing that this is a population whose future is closely linked with that of Puerto Rico.

The term "stateside Puerto Ricans" is used here to describe the Puerto Rican population residing in the United States. It is less ambiguous than other terms more generally used, such as "mainland Puerto Ricans", "Puerto Ricans in the United States", "U.S.-based Puerto Ricans" and Nuyoricans (Puerto Ricans living in New York).

Puerto Rican identity

As a group, Puerto Ricans in the United States continue to have a strong connection to the people of Puerto Rico. A strong indicator of the Puerto Rican identity of stateside Puerto Ricans is their use of the Spanish language. Most Puerto Rican Americans speak English as well. They make up the largest multi-lingual population in New York City and other cities.

Teatro Puerto Rico (1950s) in the South Bronx, N.Y.

Puerto Ricans have been migrating to the United States since the 19th century and have a long history of collective social advocacy for their political and social rights and preserving their cultural heritage. In New York City, which has the largest concentration of Puerto Ricans in the United States, they began running for elective office in the 1920s, electing one of their own to the New York State Assembly for the first time in 1937.

Important Puerto Rican institutions have emerged from this long history. Aspira, a leader in the field of education, was established in New York City in 1961 and is now one of the largest national Latino nonprofit organizations in the United States. There is also the National Puerto Rican Coalition in Washington, DC, the National Puerto Rican Forum, the Puerto Rican Family Institute, Boricua College, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies of the City University of New York at Hunter College, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Conference of Puerto Rican Women, and the New York League of Puerto Rican Women, Inc., among others.

Ricky Martin at the annual Puerto Rican parade in New York City.

One indicator of the strength of Puerto Rican identity and pride is the annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City, which is the subject of the poetry work Empire of Dreams by islander Giannina Braschi. There are 50 other Puerto Rican parades throughout the country.

The government of Puerto Rico has a long history of involvement with the stateside Puerto Rican community. In July 1930, Puerto Rico's Department of Labor established an employment service in New York City. The Migration Division (known as the "Commonwealth Office"), also part of Puerto Rico’s Department of Labor, was created in 1948, and by the end of the 1950s, was operating in 115 cities and towns stateside. The Department of Puerto Rican Affairs in the United States was established in 1989 as a cabinet-level department in Puerto Rico. Currently, the Commonwealth operates the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has 12 regional offices throughout the United States.

A five-city telephone survey conducted in 2002 by Bendixen & Associates for the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration found a number of important indicators of what was termed a strong "dual identity" among stateside Puerto Ricans. The survey found that:

• 68% say that most of their children’s friends are Hispanic or Puerto Rican;
• 63% attend Puerto Rican celebrations like the Puerto Rican Day parade;
• 54% are very connected to their family back in Puerto Rico.

The strength of stateside Puerto Rican identity is fueled by a number of factors. These include the large circular migration between the island and the United States, a long tradition of the government of Puerto Rico promoting its ties to those stateside, the continuing existence of racial-ethnic prejudice and discrimination in the United States, and high residential and school segregation.

Puerto Rican migration

Since 1493, Puerto Rico has been under the control of colonial powers. Even during Spanish rule, Puerto Ricans settled in the U.S. However, it was not until the end of the Spanish-American War that the huge influx of Puerto Rican workers to the U.S. began. With its victory in 1898, the United States acquired Puerto Rico from Spain and has retained sovereignty ever since. The 1917 Jones–Shafroth Act made all Puerto Ricans U.S. citizens, freeing them from immigration barriers. The massive migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States was the largest in the early and late 20th century.

U.S. political and economic interventions in Puerto Rico created the conditions for emigration, "by concentrating wealth in the hands of U.S. corporations and displacing workers." Policymakers promoted "colonization plans and contract labour programs to reduce the population. U.S. employers, often with government support, recruited Puerto Ricans as a source of low-wage labour to the United States and other destinations." Puerto Ricans migrated in search of higher-wage jobs, first to New York City, and later to other cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston,Cleveland, Miami, Tampa, and Orlando.

New York City

See also: Puerto Rican migration to New York and Nuyorican

National Puerto Rican Parade in New York City, 2005 (photo by Angelo Falcón)

Although the bulk of New York's Puerto Rican population migrated to the Bronx, the largest influx was to Spanish Harlem and Loisaida, in Manhattan, from the 1950s all the way up to 1980s. Labor recruitment was the basis of this particular community. In 1960, the number of stateside Puerto Ricans living in New York City as a whole was 88%, as 69% were living in East Harlem [alone]. They helped others settle, find work, and build communities by relying on social networks containing friends and family. For a long time, Spanish Harlem (East Harlem) and Loisaida (Lower East Side) were the two major Puerto Rican communities in the city, but during the 1960s and 1970s predominately Puerto Rican neighborhoods started to spring up in the Bronx because of its proximity to East Harlem and in Brooklyn because of its proximity to the Lower East Side. Although half of the city's Puerto Rican population is in the Bronx, there are significant Puerto Rican communities in all five boroughs. The number of Puerto Rican residents in New York City, peaked at around 1980. At that time there were about 930,000 Puerto Rican residents in the city and about 80% of the Hispanic population was Puerto Rican, representing about 15% of the city's total population then. Now, both the number and percentage is significantly lower than it was in 1980.

Philippe Bourgois, an anthropologist who has studied Puerto Ricans in the inner city, suggests that "the Puerto Rican community has fallen victim to poverty through social marginalization due to the transformation of New York into a global city." The Puerto Rican population in East Harlem and New York City as a whole remains the poorest among all migrant groups in U.S. cities. As of 1973, about "46.2% of the Puerto Rican migrants in East Harlem were living below the federal poverty line." The struggle for legal work and affordable housing remains fairly low and the implementation of favorable public policy fairly inconsistent. New York City's Puerto Rican community contributed to the creation of hip hop music, as well as many forms of Latin music including Salsa and Freestyle. Puerto Ricans in New York created their own cultural movement, as well as cultural institutions such as the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and many more.

Puerto Rican flag in East Harlem in New York City, outside of the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, winter 2005 (photo by Angelo Falcón).

It is often considered that the transformation of the U.S. economy in 1973 and the 1980s mostly affected the entire Puerto Rican population of East Harlem. Puerto Ricans were first desired for cheaper labor. The economy shift from manufacturing to the service sector forcing these people into hard times, as many of them had worked in factories and relied on these particular jobs to support their families back home in Puerto Rico. The importance of factory jobs for a decent standard of living for these former rural workers proved crucial:

... labour in industrial production is still crucial and central to the global economy. However, the export of production from the center to the less media-visible periphery, and the development of the informational service economy, is an outright assault on working-class populations.

Chicago

See also: Puerto Ricans in Chicago

Division Street (Paseo Boricua), facing east from Mozart Street, one-half block west of California Avenue.

The Puerto Rican community in Chicago has a history that stretches back more than 70 years. The first small migration came in the 1930s, not from the island, but from New York City. The first large wave of migration occurred in the late 1940s. Starting in 1946, many people were recruited by Castle Barton Associates as low-wage non-union foundry workers and domestic workers. As soon as they were established in Chicago, many brought their families. Although the number of Puerto Ricans peaked at around 1980, at that time Chicago had about 240,000 Puerto Rican residents; before 1980, Puerto Ricans were actually the city's largest Hispanic group, though they quickly became overshadowed by a fast-growing Mexican population.

By the 1960s, the Puerto Rican community was centered in West Town and Humboldt Park on the Northwest Side and in Lincoln Park on the North Side. There were also many Puerto Ricans in North Lawndale on the city's West Side. Gentrification in Lincoln Park in the late 1960s displaced the community, forcing people to move to the west. Puerto Ricans are mainly present on the Northwest side of Chicago. Over half of Chicago's Puerto Rican community resides in Humboldt Park, which is sometimes nicknamed "Little Puerto Rico" or Paseo Boricua. Other neighborhoods with significant Puerto Rican populations, include Hermosa, Logan Square, and West Town, and to a lesser extant Lincoln Park, and North Lawndale.

From the 1950s to the early 1990s, the Humboldt Park neighborhood was considered an economic dead zone by city planners and developers. It became a motherland to Chicago's Puerto Rican super-gangs such as the Puerto Rican Stones, Insane Spanish Cobras, Latin Eagles, Maniac Latin Disciples, and the Latin Kings, one of the largest Latino gangs in the country. Also, the Young Lords hail from this area, they are considered to be the Puerto Rican equivalent of the Black Panther Party. Despite the fact that there was a vital community of families, property owners, and businesses, many people from both the inside and out saw little opportunity. Chicago's Puerto Rican community largely participated in the Division Street Riots in 1966, which lasted for seven days, and was the only major Puerto Rican riot in the country.

However, in 1995, Division Street found new life when city officials and Latino leaders offered a symbolic gesture to recognize the neighborhood and the residents' roots. They christened it "Paseo Boricua" and installed two metal Puerto Rican flags—each weighing 45 tons, measuring 59 feet (18 m) vertically, and stretching across the street—at each end of the strip. The struggling neighborhood transformed itself into one of the most vibrant Latino neighborhoods in Chicago, uniting the once fragmented Puerto Rican community, 601,890 strong. The occupancy rate of the area rose to about 90 percent, and home prices stabilized. A culture center was established, and local Puerto Rican politicians relocated their offices to Division Street. Recently, the City of Chicago set aside money for Paseo Boricua property owners who want to restore their buildings' facades. The Humboldt Park Paseo Boricua neighborhood is the political and cultural capital of the Puerto Rican community in the Midwest and some say in the Puerto Rican Diaspora.

Philadelphia

Puerto Ricans represent the largest Latino community in Philadelphia, with over a century of settlement in the city. Puerto Ricans represent nearly 70% of Philadelphia's 190,000 Hispanics. Although U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans migrating to Philadelphia encountered racism, discrimination, and limited economic opportunities. Retaining strong ties to the island, they also worked hard to make a home here and build a community structure of businesses, organizations, houses of worship, and other institutions that have become the foundation of Latino life in the city. Throughout the 1950s, many Puerto Rican migrants settled east and west along Spring Garden Street. Puerto Ricans were not always welcome newcomers, however, and many faced prejudice and discrimination in their neighborhoods. As the Puerto Rican population continued to grow in the 1960s, it expanded east towards the Delaware River and north towards Lehigh Avenue. During the 1980s and 1990s, the Puerto Rican community grew further north into Olney and into the lower sections of the Northeast. The majority of Philadelphia's Puerto Rican community resides in North Philadelphia, and to a lesser extant Northeast Philadelphia as well. Though smaller yet still significant populations are present in other parts of the city.

Demographics of stateside Puerto Ricans

Official Immigration to the U.S
Year of Immigration	Net migration to the U.S mainland	Total passenger traffic
1900-09	2,000	2,000
1910-19	11,000	11,000
1920-29	35,638	35,638
1930-39	12,715	12,715
1940-49	145,010	145,010
1950-59	446,693	460,826
1960-1969	221,763	151,770
1970-79	26,683	85,198
1980-89	490,562	287,451
1990-99	325,875	-226*
2000-10	489,509
Total	1,717,969	1,191,382
Figures between 1900-1949 are for total passenger traffic only. *The minus sign (-) indicates the movement of passengers to the island of Puerto Rico.

Race by Puerto Rican national origin 2010 Census Total population: 4,623,716
White	Black	Asian	Indian	Mixed
53.1%	8.7%	0.5%	0.9%	36.7%
2,455,534	403,372	24,312	42,504	1,697,681

Between 1990 and 2000, the stateside Puerto Rican population grew by 12.5 percent, from 3.2 to 3.4 million. This growth rate was significantly higher than the 8.4 percent growth of Puerto Rico during this same period.

In the most recent census in 2010, there were 4,623,716 Puerto Rican Americans, both native and foreign born, representing 9.2% of all Hispanics in the U.S. About 53.1% identified themselves as white, which is the second largest population of all other major Hispanic groups. (However, 75% of Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico self-identify themselves as white.) About 8.7% considered themselves black. 0.5% considered themselves Asian and 0.9% considered themselves Native American. While 36.7% mixed or "other" (mainly made up of mulattos and tri-racials). The majority of Puerto Ricans are racially mixed, but that they do not feel the need to identify as such. Furthermore, Puerto Ricans are of Black African, American Indian, and European ancestry and only identify themselves as mixed if having parents "appearing" to be of separate "races", and being that many Puerto Ricans are light-skinned, most choose to identify as "white". Although the U.S. Census shows that the majority of Puerto Ricans have self-described themselves as "white", they are essentially an amalgam of cultures stemming from various parts of the world and, thus, not "white" as it is traditionally understood on the U.S. mainland. The racial identification issue of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. is controversial and heatly debated, a cause of ethnic prejudice towards Puerto Ricans and also between those living Stateside and on the Island.

List of states by Puerto Rican-American population

State/Territory	Puerto Rican-Americans Population (2010 Census)	Percentage
Alabama	12,225	0.3
Alaska	4,502	0.6
Arizona	34,787	0.5
Arkansas	4,789	0.2
California	189,945	0.5
Colorado	22,995	0.5
Connecticut	252,972	7.1
Delaware	22,533	2.5
District of Columbia	3,129	0.5
Florida	847,550	4.5
Georgia	71,987	0.7
Hawaii	44,116	3.2
Idaho	2,910	0.2
Illinois	182,989	1.4
Indiana	30,304	0.5
Iowa	4,885	0.2
Kansas	9,247	0.3
Kentucky	11,454	0.3
Louisiana	11,603	0.3
Maine	4,377	0.3
Maryland	42,572	0.7
Massachusetts	266,125	4.1
Michigan	37,267	0.4
Minnesota	10,807	0.2
Mississippi	5,888	0.2
Missouri	12,236	0.2
Montana	1,491	0.2
Nebraska	3,242	0.2
Nevada	20,664	0.8
New Hampshire	11,729	0.9
New Jersey	434,092	4.9
New Mexico	7,964	0.4
New York	1,070,558	5.5
North Carolina	71,800	0.8
North Dakota	987	0.1
Ohio	94,965	0.8
Oklahoma	12,223	0.3
Oregon	8,845	0.2
Pennsylvania	366,082	2.9
Rhode Island	34,979	3.3
South Carolina	26,493	0.6
South Dakota	1,483	0.2
Tennessee	21,060	0.3
Texas	130,576	0.5
Utah	7,182	0.3
Vermont	2,261	0.4
Virginia	73,958	0.9
Washington	25,838	0.4
West Virginia	3,701	0.2
Wisconsin	46,323	0.8
Wyoming	1,026	0.2
USA	4,623,716	1.5

The Puerto Rican populations in New York and other tradional desination states of the Northeast and Midwest has largely remained stagnant for several decades and have seen slow growth, with Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Connecticut being exceptions. While the Puerto Rican populations in progressive sunbelt states, especially Florida, has rapidly increased over the past two decades. The number of Puerto Ricans migrating from the island to the mainland has significantly increased over the past few years. The states with the highest net flow of Puerto Ricans from the island relocating there, include Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland, between 2000 and 2010, these states were the major destinations for Puerto Ricans migrating from the island to the fifty states, and possibly remain so. Also, New York, remains a major destination for Puerto Rican migrants, though only a third of recent Puerto Rican arrivals went to New York.

Although, Puerto Ricans constitute over 9 percent of Hispanics in the nation, there are some states where Puerto Ricans make up over half of the Hispanic population, including Connecticut where 57 percent of the state's Hispanics are of Puerto Rican descent and Pennsylvania where Puerto Ricans make up 53 percent of the Hispanics. Other states where Puerto Ricans make up a remarkably large portion of the Hispanic community include: Massachusetts where they make up 40 percent of all Hispanics, Rhode Island at 39 percent, New York at 34 percent, New Jersey at 33 percent, Delaware at 33 percent, Ohio at 27 percent, and Florida at 21 percent of all Hispanics in that state. The U.S. States where Puerto Ricans were the largest Hispanic group were New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Hawaii.

The major cities with the largest Puerto Rican populations in 2010 were

• New York City: 723,621 Puerto Rican residents, as of 2010; compared to 789,172 in 2000, decrease of 65,551; currently representing 8.9% of the city's total population and 32% of the city's Hispanic population, are the city's largest Hispanic group.
• Philadelphia: 121,643 Puerto Rican residents, as of 2010; compared to 91,527 in 2000, increase of 30,116; currently representing 8.0% of the city's total population and 68% of the city's Hispanic population, are the city's largest Hispanic group.
• Chicago: 102,703 Puerto Rican residents, as of 2010; compared to 113,055 in 2000, decrease of 10,352; currently representing 3.8% of the city's total population and 15% of the city's Hispanic population, are the city's second largest Hispanic group.

The cities of Springfield, Massachusetts, Hartford, Connecticut, and Newark, New Jersey have the fourth, fifth, and sixth largest Puerto Rican populations in the nation.

Puerto Rican population in the Northeast

About 52.8 percent (2,443,175 Puerto Rican residents) of the Puerto Rican population in the United States is in the Northeast region. New York City and Philadelphia have the largest Puerto Rican populations in the Northeast and in the nation as a whole. Aside from larger cities, numerous small towns in the Northeast have significant Puerto Rican populations as well. In New York, even though the bulk of the state's Puerto Rican residents reside in New York City and the surrounding area, cities such as Buffalo and Rochester also have large Puerto Rican populations. Boston also has a large Puerto Rican population. Nearly every major city in the Northeast has a significant Puerto Rican population, including cities such as Newark, New Jersey, Allentown, Pennsylvania, Hartford, Connecticut, Springfield, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island. Bronx County, New York has the largest Puerto Rican population out of all counties in the country, with about 298,921 Puerto Ricans, almost half of New York City's Puerto Rican population resides in this borough. Holyoke, Massachusetts has the highest percentage of Puerto Ricans of any U.S. city. New York City was the only major Northeastern city to see a decrease in it's Puerto Rican population during the past decade. Although Puerto Rican populations have been quickly growing throughout the country recently, the Northeast remains a major destination for Puerto Rican migrants and is often considered a sronghold in the Puerto Rican diaspora.

Puerto Rican population in the South

About 29.7 percent (1,373,541 Puerto Rican residents) of the Puerto Rican population in the United States is in the South region, and over two-thirds of the Puerto Rican population in the South is in the state of Florida. There are large Puerto Rican populations in the cities of Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, and Miami, as well as many other cities in Florida, specifically in Central Florida. In fact, the Orlando/Central Florida region has one of the fastest growing Puerto Rican populations in the country. Also, Osceola County, Florida is the only county in the country where Puerto Ricans are the largest ancestral group. Other large cities with significant Puerto Rican populations include San Antonio, Virginia Beach, Wilmington, Charlotte, Houston, Fayetteville, Raleigh, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Atlanta. Although the cities of Baltimore and Washingotn, D.C. don't have very large Puerto Rican populations, these two cities may emerge as a major desination for Puerto Rican migrants, due to it's proximity to Philadelphia, New York City, and other parts of the Northeast, as well as Baltimore's cheaper cost of living and Washingotn, D.C.'s availibity of jobs. Puerto Rican populations in areas between New York and Florida are projected to continue to it's fast growth. Also many smaller cities in the South have significant Puerto Rican populations, including many cities in New Castle County in Delaware, the Hampton Roads area of Southeastern Virgina and the Northern Virginia-Central Maryland Area, as well as Southeastern Georgia, due to it's proximity to Jacksonville, a city with a large Puerto Rican population, and many more smaller cities of the metropolitan areas of the major cities previously mentioned.

Puerto Rican population in the Midwest

About 9.4 percent (434,735 Puerto Rican residents) of the Puerto Rican population in the United States is in the Midwest region. Chicago has the largest Puerto Rican population in the Midwest region and the third largest in the nation as a whole. Other cities with large Puerto Rican populations include Cleveland and Milwaukee. Detroit, Columbus, Toledo, and Indianapolis have smaller yet still significant Puerto Rican populations as well. Puerto Rican populations also exist in several smaller cities especially in the metropolitan areas of Cleveland and Chicago. Lorain, Ohio has the highest percentage of Puerto Ricans of any U.S. city west of Appalachian mountains. The bulk of the Puerto Rican population in the Midwest is in major cities of the lower Great Lakes, also known as the Rust Belt. Chicago and Detroit were the only major Midwestern cities to experience a decrease in their Puerto Rican populations during the past decade. Most of the recent net-growth of migrants relocating from Puerto Rico to the Midwestern states, is in Ohio, particularly Columbus and it's surrounding metro area.

Puerto Rican population in the West

About 8.1 percent (372,265 Puerto Rican residents) of the Puerto Rican population in the United States is in the West region. Significant Puerto Rican populations exist in cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Sacramento, and Long Beach, among other cities, especially in California.

Cities with the Highest Percentage of Puerto Rican residents

In 2000-2010, among the cities with the largest Puerto Rican populations, the fastest-growing were:

• Buenaventura Lakes, Florida: 202 percent
• Poinciana, Florida: 195 percent
• Orlando, Florida: 136 percent
• Allentown, Pennsylvania: 81 percent
• Tampa, Florida: 75 percent
• Reading, Pennsylvania: 60 percent
• New Britain, Connecticut: 43 percent
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 35 percent

Today, many cities and smaller communities in the Northeast and Florida (especially Central Florida) have large percentages of Puerto Ricans as well. The 25 U.S. communities with the highest percentage of Puerto Ricans in 2010 were:

1. Holyoke, Massachusetts: 44.70 percent
2. Buenaventura Lakes, Florida: 44.50 percent
3. Azalea Park, Florida: 36.55 percent
4. Poinciana, Florida: 35.80 percent
5. Hartford, Connecticut: 33.77 percent
6. Springfield, Massachusetts: 33.29 percent
7. Kissimmee, Florida: 33.10 percent
8. Reading, Pennsylvania: 32.00 percent
9. Camden, New Jersey: 30.78 percent
10. New Britain, Connecticut: 29.90 percent
11. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: 29.22 percent
12. Vineland, New Jersey: 26.70 percent
13. Willimantic, Connecticut: 26.44 percent
14. Allentown, Pennsylvania: 25.17 percent
15. Lebanon, Pennsylvania: 23.90 percent
16. Perth Amboy, New Jersey: 23.80 percent
17. Bridgeport, Connecticut: 22.13 percent
18. Lawrence, Massachusetts: 22.21 percent
19. Bronx, New York: 21.69 percent
20. Deltona, Florida: 20.74 percent
21. Meriden, Connecticut: 20.70 percent
22. Ellenville, New York: 20.11 percent
23. Windham, Connecticut: 19.52 percent
24. Lorain, Ohio: 19.44 percent
25. York, Pennsylvania: 19.30 percent

The 10 large cities (over 200,000 in population) with the highest percentages of Puerto Rican residents include:

• Rochester, New York: 13.2 percent
• Orlando, Florida: 13.1 percent
• Newark, New Jersey: 13.0 percent
• New York City, New York: 8.9 percent
  • Bronx, New York: 21.6 percent
  • Staten Island, New York: 8.0 percent
  • Brooklyn, New York: 7.0 percent
  • Manhattan, New York: 6.8 percent
  • Queens, New York: 4.6 percent
• Buffalo, New York: 8.4 percent
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 8.0 percent
• Cleveland, Ohio: 7.4 percent
• Tampa, Florida: 7.2 percent
• Boston, Massachusetts: 4.9 percent
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin: 4.1 percent

Puerto Rican migration patterns, 1995-2000 (graphic by Angelo Falcón)

However, despite these dramatic growth rates, it was the decline in the Puerto Rican population in New York City during the 1990s that became a focus of discussion of many Puerto Ricans following Census 2000, along with the dramatic growth in Florida. During this period, the city’s Puerto Rican population dropped by over 100,000, or 12 percent. Because of this, New York was the only state to register a decrease in its Puerto Rican population during this time period (a phenomenon limited to the three biggest counties in New York City). This is a good example of how complex Puerto Rican demographics have become. While overall there was a significant drop citywide in the 1990s, there was also significant growth in two of its five boroughs (or counties). In addition, despite this decline, New York City remains a major hub for migration from Puerto Rico and within the United States. Numbering over 720,000, New York City’s Puerto Rican community remains its largest Latino population group.

Four other major cities experienced a decrease in Puerto Rican residents from 1990-2000:

• Chicago, Illinois: -6,811 (a 2 percent drop)
• Jersey City, New Jersey: -13,567 (4 percent)
• Newark, New Jersey: -11,895, (5 percent)
• Paterson, New Jersey: -3,567 (13 percent)

The reasons for and impact of these declines are not well understood. Especially in the New York case, this has been the subject of much speculation but little serious analysis to date. Between New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago, the cities with the three largest Puerto Rican populations, Philadelphia is the only one that actually seen an increase, while the other two seen decreases. This is probably due to Philadelphia's proximity to New York City, as well as it's cheaper cost of living.

To put this population decline in a broader context, it is important to note that beyond these major cities, the stateside Puerto Rican population dropped in 1990-2000 in 164 other smaller cities throughout the United States, 10.8 percent of the 1,503 cities and other places surveyed by the 2000 Census (CDPs or Census-designated places). Of the ten places in the country with the highest percentage drop in their Puerto Rican population, five were in California, two each in Florida and New Jersey, and one in Massachusetts. None were in the Northeast or Midwest. The five places with the largest 1990-2000 declines were:

• Olympia Heights, Florida: -72.4 percent
• Marina, California: -59.0 percent
• Seaside, California: -55.1 percent
• Baldwin Park, California: -48.4 percent
• Pompano Beach Highlands, Florida: -43.8 percent

Dispersion

Puerto Rican population in the United States, 2000 (graphic by Angelo Falcón)

Like other groups, the theme of "dispersal" has had a long history with the stateside Puerto Rican community. This history extends from the early concerns of overpopulation of Puerto Rico to those in the 1940s and 1950s about the need to disperse the rapidly growing Puerto Rican population dramatically concentrating in New York City, Chicago and other U.S. urban centers after World War II.

More recent demographic developments appear at first blush as if the stateside Puerto Rican population has been dispersing in greater numbers. However, upon closer examination, it is a process probably best described as a “reconfiguration” or even the “nationalizing” of this community throughout the United States.

New York City was the center of the stateside Puerto Rican community for most of the 20th century. With the 2000 Census, this picture changed in dramatic ways. New York City was once home to over 80 percent of stateside Puerto Ricans and a place where Puerto Ricans were the majority of its Latino population. By 2000, Puerto Ricans in New York City had dropped only 23 percent of all stateside Puerto Ricans, and made up 37 percent of the city’s Latino population. Nevertheless, they remain the largest Latino group in the city. Numbering close to 800,000 in 2000, their population is almost double that of Puerto Rico’s capital city, San Juan (estimated at 433,412 in 2002 by the Census Bureau).

The dramatic growth of the Puerto Rican population in Florida has generated considerable attention, especially given its important political implications for U.S. presidential elections. Between 1990 and 2000, their numbers almost doubled from 247,016 to 482,027 (a 95.1 percent increase). According to the Current Population Survey, in 2003, the Puerto Rican population in the state was estimated to be 760,127, a growth of 57.7 percent since 2000.

However, as already stated, it is not at all clear whether these settlement changes can be characterized as simple population dispersal. It is a fact that Puerto Rican population settlements today are less concentrated than they were in places like New York City, Chicago and a number of cities in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey. However, 67.0 percent of stateside Puerto Ricans in 2003 still resided in the two most traditional areas, the Northeast and Midwest.

The most dramatic Puerto Rican population growth in the 1990s, as it was for Latinos as a whole, took place in smaller cities and towns, such as Allentown, Pennsylvania, and other metro areas, such as Houston, Texas, the DC Metro Area, and the Hartford, Connecticut-Springfield, Massachusetts region.^{[citation needed]} But while this type of growth outside of central cities is usually associated with suburbanization and upward mobility, in the Puerto Rican case, this has not been the case. While there was an element of upward mobility, there was also a dispersal of the poor and low wage workers. At the point when stateside Puerto Ricans began relocating to the suburbs, these areas had begun in general to take on many of the negative characteristics of the urban centers: housing and school segregation, poverty, rising crime and so on.

Rather than simple dispersal, what may be occurring is a reconcentration and an increasingly complex migration circuit for stateside Puerto Ricans. Undoubtedly driven largely by the current powerful force of globalization and its attendant economic restructuring, this redistribution of such a large portion of the stateside and island Puerto Rican populations is creating a significant social reconfiguration as well, with an uncertain long-term impact.

Concentration

Despite these significant population movements, even in 2000, the Puerto Rican population of cities outside of the traditional regions of the Northeast and Midwest did not rank high; Tampa and Orlando, both in Florida, were only 20th and 23rd, respectively. Puerto Ricans continued to be one of the most urbanized groups in the United States, with 55.8 percent living in central cities in 2003. This was more than double the 25 percent of non-Latinos and higher than Mexicans (43.1 percent), Cubans (22.3 percent), and Central/South Americans (47.9 percent).

Residential segregation is a cause of stateside Puerto Rican population concentration. While blacks are the most residentially segregated group in the United States, stateside Puerto Ricans are the most segregated among U.S. Latinos. Residential segregation is a serious problem related primarily to housing discrimination, especially for groups like Puerto Ricans, who have been migrating stateside for close to a century. Residential concentrations are associated with high poverty conditions and a host of other social problems, including low-performing schools, poor health and low-paying jobs. Using a measure of degree of segregation called the Index of Dissimilarity, for which a score of 60 or above indicates a high level of segregation, Puerto Ricans exceeded this level in nine major metropolitan areas. They were the most segregated in the following six metro areas in 2000:

• Bridgeport, Connecticut (score of 73)
• Hartford, Connecticut (70)
• New York City (69)
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (69)
• Newark, New Jersey (69)
• Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria, Ohio (68)

Stateside Puerto Ricans also find themselves concentrated in a third interesting way — they are disproportionately clustered in what has been called the "Boston-New York-Washington Corridor" along the East Coast. This area, coined a "megalopolis" by geographer Jean Gottman in 1956, is the largest and most affluent urban corridor in the world, being described as a "node of wealth ... [an] area where the pulse of the national economy beats loudest and the seats of power are well established." With major world class universities clustered in Boston and stretching throughout this corridor, the economic and media power and international power politics in New York City, and the seat of the federal government in Washington, DC, this is a major global power center.

The actual and potential impact that stateside Puerto Ricans are and can have on the United States and globally because of their significant presence in this Boston-New York-Washington megalopolis has been considerable. It is a locational advantage that can best be leveraged if this community is able to develop the leadership and infrastructure to exploit it. It certainly helps to account for the most disproportionate projection of stateside Puerto Rican images globally through the media and institutions of higher education since the "great migration" of the 1950s.^{[citation needed]}

Segmentation

These changes in the settlement patterns of stateside Puerto Ricans between so-called traditional and new areas have resulted in a greater economic and social segmentation or polarization of this population along spatial lines. The Northeast, which in 2003 was home to 59.2 percent of stateside Puerto Ricans, was also where 88.5 percent of them receiving public assistance lived. The average household income in 2002 of $42,032 was the lowest of any major racial-ethnic group in the Northeast; this was the only region where it was lower than the national average for stateside Puerto Ricans. The Northeast was also the region where stateside Puerto Ricans had the lowest homeownership rate, 31.9 percent, aside from California (the two most expensive housing markets in the United States in general).

Because of its greater visibility and the dramatic growth of its Puerto Rican population, Florida is usually identified as the main engine behind this polarization. However, there are more dramatic differences in socioeconomic indicators between the Northeast and states like California, Texas and Hawaii. This is the case as well for states like New Jersey and Illinois, which are in the more traditional Puerto Rican settlement regions. The regional socioeconomic polarization is more complex than it may appear at first glance. While the greater affluence of the Puerto Rican population in states like California (for example the Coachella Valley) and Texas (such as Austin) may be well-established, the future of a state like Florida (especially the Orlando metro area) in this regard is not at all clear, given the rapidity and size of the migration and the different economic forces and labor markets at play.

While the 1990-2000 population growth rate of stateside Puerto Ricans of 24.9 percent was impressive compared to the 13.1 percent growth for the overall population, it was less than half of the growth rate of the total Latino population of 57.9 percent. In cities like New York, the Puerto Rican share of the Latino population decreased, though in Florida it increased. Overall, stateside Puerto Ricans make up about from 9 to 10 percent of the national Latino population.

These shifts in the relative sizes of Latino populations have also changed the role of the stateside Puerto Rican community. In many cases, Puerto Rican community leaders have become major advocates for immigration reform despite the fact that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. In some cases, because this community has had a longer history in dealing with the political system, the increasing numbers of Puerto Ricans elected and appointed government officials play gate-keeping and other roles in terms of the growing non-Puerto Rican Latino communities. Thus, many long established Puerto Rican institutions have had to revise their missions (and, in some cases, change their names) to provide services and advocacy on behalf of non-Puerto Rican Latinos. Some have seen this as a process that has made the stateside Puerto Rican community nearly invisible as immigration and a broader Latino agenda seem to have taken center stage, while others view this is a great opportunity for stateside Puerto Ricans to increase their influence and leadership role in a larger Latino world.

Socioeconomic conditions

graphic by Angelo Falcón

Income

The stateside Puerto Rican community has usually been characterized as being largely poor and part of the urban underclass in the United States. Studies and reports over the last fifty years or so have documented the high poverty status of this community. However, the picture at the start of the 21st century also reveals significant socioeconomic progress and a community with a growing economic clout.

In 2002, the average individual income for stateside Puerto Ricans was $33,927,^{[citation needed]} only 68.7 percent that of whites ($48,687) and below the average of Asians ($49,981), Cubans ($38,733) and Mexicans ($38,200).^{[citation needed]} However, it was higher than that of Dominicans ($28,467), and Central and South Americans ($30,444).^{[citation needed]} In 2002, there were an estimated 24,450 stateside Puerto Ricans with individual incomes of $100,000 or more, compared to 4,059 a decade earlier.^{[citation needed]}

The Latino market and remittances to Puerto Rico

The combined income for stateside Puerto Ricans in 2002 was $54.5 billion. This exceeded the total personal income of Puerto Rico, which was $42.6 billion in 2000. This is a significant share of the large and growing Latino market in the United States that has been attracting increased attention from the media and the corporate sector. In the last decade or so, major corporations have discovered the so-called "urban markets" of blacks and Latinos that had been neglected for so long. This has spawned a cottage industry of marketing firms, consultants and publications that specialize in the Latino market.

One important question this raises is the degree to which stateside Puerto Ricans contribute economically to Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rico Planning Board estimated that remittances totaled $66 million in 1963. The only recent study that could be identified that examines the issue of remittances by stateside Puerto Ricans to Puerto Rico limited itself to migrants (those living stateside who were born on the island) and found that 38 percent of them indicated they sent money to Puerto Rico, averaging $1,179 per year per person (these are unpublished figures not included in the report that was released by DeSipio, et al. 2003). Using 2002 figures for island-born adult stateside Puerto Ricans, this would represent $417.8 million in remittances annually from that group alone. Since the island-born represented only 34 percent of the stateside Puerto Rican population in 2003, actual remittances from the entire community are probably more than double this number, possibly approaching or exceeding $1 billion a year. It is also important to keep in mind that these are family remittances and do not include investments in businesses and property in Puerto Rico, visitor expenditures and the like by stateside Puerto Ricans.

The full extent of the stateside Puerto Rican community’s contributions to the economy of Puerto Rico is not known, but it is clearly significant. The role of remittances and investments by Latino immigrants to their home counties has reached a level that it has received much attention in the last few years, as countries like Mexico develop strategies to better leverage these large sums of money from their diasporas in their economic development planning. Yet, the income disparity between the stateside community and those living on the island is not as great as those of other Latin-American countries, and the direct connection between second-generation Puerto Ricans and their relatives is not as conducive to direct monetary support. Many Puerto Ricans still living in Puerto Rico also remit to family members who are living stateside.

Gender

The average income in 2002 of stateside Puerto Rican men was $36,572, while women earned an average $30,613, 83.7 percent that of the men. Compared to all Latino groups, whites, and Asians, stateside Puerto Rican women came closer to achieving parity in income to the men of their own racial-ethnic group. In addition, stateside Puerto Rican women had incomes that were 82.3 percent that of white women, while stateside Puerto Rican men had incomes that were only 64.0 percent that of white men. Stateside Puerto Rican women were closer to income parity with white women than were women who were Dominicans (58.7 percent), Central and South Americans (68.4 percent), but they were below Cubans (86.2 percent), "other Hispanics" (87.2 percent), blacks (83.7 percent), and Asians (107.7 percent).

Stateside Puerto Rican men were in a weaker position in comparison with men from other racial-ethnic groups. They were closer to income parity to white men than men who were Dominicans (62.3 percent), and Central and South Americans (58.3 percent). Although very close to income parity with blacks (65.5 percent), stateside Puerto Rican men fell below Mexicans (68.3 percent), Cubans (75.9 percent), other Hispanics (75.1 percent), and Asians (100.7 percent).

Educational attainment

Stateside Puerto Ricans, along with other U.S. Latinos, have experienced the long-term problem of a high school dropout rate that has resulted in relatively low educational attainment. Of those 25 years and older, 63.2 percent graduated from high school, compared to 84.0 percent of whites, 73.6 percent of blacks, 83.4 percent of Asians, 68.7 percent of Cubans, and 72.6 percent of other Latinos.^{[citation needed]} The rate, however, exceeded that of Mexicans (48.7 percent), Dominicans (51.7 percent) and Central and South Americans (60.4 percent).^{[citation needed]}

While in Puerto Rico, according to the 2000 Census, 24.4 percent of those 25 years and older had a four-year college degree, for stateside Puerto Ricans the figure was only 9.9 percent. By 2003, it had increased to 13.1 percent, below the rate for whites (26.1 percent), blacks (14.4 percent) and Asians (43.3 percent). Among Latinos, only Mexicans (6.2 percent) fared worse, with other groups having higher rates: Dominicans (10.9 percent), Cubans (19.4 percent), Central and South Americans (16.0 percent) and other Latinos (16.1 percent).^{[citation needed]}

Only 3.1 percent of stateside Puerto Ricans 25 and older in 2003 had graduate school degrees, compared to 4.7 percent in Puerto Rico in 2000. This rate was lower than that of whites (8.7 percent), blacks (4.1 percent) and Asians (15.6 percent). Among Latinos, Stateside Puerto Ricans fared better than Mexicans (1.4 percent) and Dominicans (1.8 percent), but worse than Cubans (6.7 percent), Central and South Americans (4.2 percent) and other Latinos (5.6 percent).^{[citation needed]}

The University of Puerto Rico is the major Hispanic-serving institution of higher education in the United States that has the capacity, with increased federal government assistance, to open its doors much more aggressively to stateside Puerto Ricans.^{[citation needed]}

Employment

In 2003, 20.7 percent of stateside Puerto Ricans were in professional or managerial occupations, while 33.7 percent had service or sales jobs. The percentage in professional-managerial positions was higher than that of Mexicans (13.2 percent) and Central and South Americans (16.8 percent), but below that of Cubans (28.5 percent), other Latinos (29.0 percent), and non-Latinos (36.2 percent).^{[citation needed]} Between 1993 and 2003, among stateside Puerto Ricans, those in professional-managerial occupations grew from 15.3 to 20.7 percent. While significant, this increase lagged behind that of non-Latinos (+8.8 points) and Cubans (+9.9 points).^{[citation needed]}

Poverty

Stateside Puerto Ricans have been associated with problems faced by communities with persistently high poverty levels. Some have characterized them as part of the urban underclass in the United States. Their poverty rate was only exceeded by that of Dominicans (29.9 percent). It was higher than every other major group: whites (6.3 percent), blacks (21.3 percent), Asians (7.1 percent), Mexicans (21.2 percent), Cubans (12.9 percent), Central and South Americans (14.1 percent) and other Latinos (13.2 percent). What is troubling about these statistics is that among Latino groups, Puerto Ricans are the only ones who are already U.S. citizens, which should be an advantage, but apparently is not. However, over three quarters were above the poverty line. This rate was about half the poverty rate of Puerto Rico in 2000 of 85.6 percent.

The stateside Puerto Rican poverty rate for families headed by single women was especially alarming, standing at 39.3 percent, although it was significantly lower than the 61.3 percent corresponding poverty rate in Puerto Rico. As with general family poverty, the stateside Puerto Rican poverty level for single female headed households was higher than every other major group except Dominicans (49.0 percent). The rate was 20.3 percent for whites, 35.3 percent for blacks, 14.7 percent far Asians, 37.6 percent for Mexicans, 15.3 percent for Cubans, 27.1 percent for Central and South Americans, and 24.8 percent for other Latinos.

Civic participation

Puerto Rican Democratic members of the United States Congress Luis Gutierrez (left), José Enrique Serrano (center), and Nydia Velázquez speaking at the Encuentro Boricua Conference at Hostos Community College in New York City, 2004

The Puerto Rican community has organized itself to represent its interests in stateside political institutions for close to a century. In New York City, Puerto Ricans first began running for public office in the 1920s. In 1937, they elected their first government representative, Oscar Garcia Rivera, to the New York State Assembly. In Massachusetts, Puerto-Rican Nelson Merced became the first Hispanic elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and the first Hispanic to hold statewide office in the commonwealth. There are currently four Puerto Rican members of the United States House of Representatives, Democrats Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, José Enrique Serrano of New York, and Nydia Velázquez of New York, and Republican Raúl Labrador of Idaho, complementing the one Resident Commissioner elected to that body from Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans have also been elected mayor of major cities such as Miami, Hartford, and Camden.

There are various ways in which stateside Puerto Ricans have exercised their influence. These include protests, campaign contributions and lobbying, and voting. The level of voter participation in Puerto Rico is legendary, greatly exceeding that of the United States.^{[citation needed]} However, many see a paradox in that this high level of voting is not echoed stateside. There, Puerto Ricans have had persistently low voter registration and turnout rates, despite the relative success they have had in electing their own to significant public offices throughout the United States.

To address this problem, the government of Puerto Rico has, since the late 1980s, launched two major voter registration campaigns to increase the level of stateside Puerto Rican voter participation. While Puerto Ricans have traditionally been concentrated in the Northeast, coordinated Latino voter registration organizations, such as the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute (based in the Midwest), have not concentrated in this region and have focused on the Mexican-American voter. The government of Puerto Rico has sought to fill this vacuum to insure that stateside Puerto Rican interests are well represented in the electoral process, recognizing that the increased political influence of stateside Puerto Ricans also benefits the island.

Note: C-VAP stands for Citizen Voting Age Population (Citizens 18 years of age and older) (graphic by Angelo Falcón)

The Census Bureau estimated that 861,728 stateside Puerto Ricans cast their votes in the November 7, 2000 presidential elections. They represented only 0.8 percent of the total, but made up a significant 14.5 percent of the increasingly visible Latino vote. The 5.9 million Latinos who voted in 2000 made up 5.4 percent of total U.S. voters, with higher percentages in politically important areas such as Florida, California, Texas, New York and New Mexico.

While for other Latino groups citizenship status is a major obstacle to voting, this is not a significant issue for stateside Puerto Ricans (99.7 percent of whom are U.S. citizens). One result of this is that although stateside Puerto Ricans made up 10.2 percent of all Latinos of voting age who are citizens, they constituted a significantly higher 14.5 percent of Latinos who actually voted.

In 2000, only 38.6 percent of voting age stateside Puerto Ricans who were citizens were registered to vote. Of the racial-ethnic groups that exceeded this figure, Cubans led the way with 55.9 percent, followed by whites at 54.7 percent, and blacks at 44.6 percent. Among Latinos, the stateside Puerto Rican rate was higher than that of Mexicans (24.0 percent), Central and South Americans (24.7 percent), and other Latinos (34.8 percent).

In terms of actual voter turnout as a percent of those registered, 79.8 percent of stateside Puerto Ricans voted in 2000, lower than whites (86.4 percent) and blacks (84.1 percent). Among Latinos, stateside Puerto Rican turnout was lower than that of Cubans (87.2 percent), Central and South Americans (87.3 percent), and other Latinos (83.8 percent), but was higher than that of Mexicans (75.0 percent).

To get a better picture of the small proportion of voters among all those eligible to vote (whether registered or not), the turnout rate can be calculated as the number of voters as a percentage of the citizen voting age population (C-VAP) for each group. Using this measure, the C-VAP turnout rate for stateside Puerto Ricans was 30.8 percent in 2000. In other words, more than two-thirds of those eligible to vote (1.9 million in actual numbers) did not do so in 2000.

This low level of electoral participation is in sharp contrast with voting levels in Puerto Rico, which are much higher than that not only of this community, but also the United States as a whole. In the 2000 gubernatorial election in Puerto Rico, 90.1 percent of the voting age population was registered to vote, and the voter turnout was 82.6 percent of those registered and 74.4 percent of the total voting age population. In contrast, in the U.S. presidential elections that same year, only 49.5 percent of eligible Americans were registered to vote and only 42.3 percent of these actually cast their ballots (and these are high estimates based on respondents’ recall, while the figures from Puerto Rico are based on actual returns).

The reasons for the differences in Puerto Rican voter participation have been an object of much discussion, but relatively little scholarly research. Explanations have ranged from the structural/institutional, the role of political parties, and political culture, and a combination of these, as well as other explanations. However, relatively little has been done by U.S. scholars and policymakers to explore this conundrum.

When the relationship of various factors to the turnout rates of stateside Puerto Ricans in 2000 is examined, socioeconomic status emerges as a clear factor. For example, according to the Census:

• Income: the turnout rate for those with incomes less than $10,000 was 37.7 percent, while for those earning $75,000 and above, it was 76.7 percent.
• Employment: 36.5 percent of the unemployed voted, versus 51.2 percent for the employed. The rate for those outside of the labor force was 50.6 percent, probably reflecting the disproportionate role of the elderly, who generally have higher turnout rates.
• Union membership: for union members it was 51.3 percent, while for nonunion members it was 42.6 percent.
• Housing: for homeowners it was 64.0 percent, while it was 41.8 percent for renters.

There were a number of other socio-demographic characteristics where turnout differences also existed, such as:

• Age: the average age of voters was 45.3 years, compared to 38.5 years for eligible nonvoters.
• Education: those without a high school diploma had a turnout rate of 42.5 percent, while for those with a graduate degree, it was 81.0 percent.
• Birthplace: for those born stateside it was 48.9 percent, compared to 52.0 percent for those born in Puerto Rico.
• Marriage status: for those who were married it was 62.0 percent, while those who were never married managed 33.0 percent.
• Military service: for those who ever served in the U.S. military, the turnout rate was 72.1 percent, compared to 48.6 percent for those who never served.

A number of other characteristics, among them gender and race, did not appear to make a significant difference.

Attention has been given to electoral reforms in the last decade or so to create conditions that would make voting and registration easier. These include such things as: the federal "Motor Voter" law that allows registration in government offices while applying for a driver’s license, food stamps or other government service; more flexible absentee ballot procedures; bilingual ballot provisions; same day registration; and so on.

Stateside Puerto Ricans registered to vote in 2000 in a variety of ways and places. The largest group registered through the mail (30.8 percent), followed by those who filled out a form at a voter registration drive (22.1 percent). The other ways they registered were: same day registration at the polling place (14.4 percent); government registration offices (13.7 percent); public assistance agencies (8.4 percent); and schools, hospitals and on campuses (3.0 percent).

Looking at the turnout rates for stateside Puerto Ricans depending on how they registered, they were lowest for registration in government offices and highest in other settings. The highest turnout rates were for those who registered at registration drives (95.2 percent), through the mail (93.8 percent) and those who registered the same day at the polls (90.5 percent). It was lowest for those who registered at government registration offices (70.9 percent) and public assistance agencies (52.7 percent). These figures indicate that a reform like the "Motor Voter" law is having the least effect for stateside Puerto Ricans, while the techniques being pursued by the government of Puerto Rico (registration drives and direct mail) appear more promising. However, much more analysis and fieldwork will be required to come to more definite conclusions.

See also

• Teatro Puerto Rico
• Young Lords
• Puerto Rican people
• List of Puerto Ricans
• History of Puerto Rico
• Demographics of Puerto Rico
• List of Stateside Puerto Ricans

References

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• Nieto, Sonia (ed.) (2000). Puerto Rican Students in U.S. Schools (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).

• Padilla, Elena. 1992. Up From Puerto Rico. New York: Columbia University Press.

• Pérez, Gina M. (2004). The Near Northwest Side Story: Migration, Displacement, & Puerto Rican Families (Berkeley: University of California Press).

• Pérez y González, María (2000). Puerto Ricans in the United States (Westport: Greenwood Press).

• Ramos-Zayas, Ana Y. (2003). National Performances: The Politics of Class, Race, and Space in Puerto Rican Chicago (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).

• Ribes Tovar, Federico (1970). Handbook of the Puerto Rican Community (New York: Plus Ultra Educational Publishers).

• Rivera Ramos. Efrén (2001). The Legal Construction of Identity: The Judicial and Social Legacy of American Colonialism in Puerto Rico (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association).

• Rivera-Batiz, Francisco L., and Carlos E. Santiago (1996). Island Paradox: Puerto Rico in the 1990s (New York: Russell Sage Foundation).

• Rodriguez, Clara E. (1989). Puerto Ricans: Born in the U.S.A. (Boston: Unwin Hyman).

• Rodríguez, Clara E. (2000). Changing Race: Latinos, the Census, and the History of Ethnicity in the United States (New York: New York University Press).

• Rodríguez, Victor M. (2005). Latino Politics in the United States: Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender in the Mexican American and Puerto Rican Experience (Dubuque, IW: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company) (Includes a CD)

• Safa, Helen. "The Urban Poor of Puerto Rico: A Study in Development and Inequality". Anthropology Today 24 (1990): 12-91.

• Salas, Leonardo. "From San Juan to New York: The History of the Puerto Rican". America: History and Life. 31 (1990).

• Sánchez González, Lisa (2001). Boricua Literature: A Literary History of the Puerto Rican Diaspora (New York: New York University Press).

• Shaw, Wendy (1997). “The Spatial Concentration of Affluence in the United States,” The Geographical Review 87 (October): 546-553.

• Torres, Andres. (1995). Between Melting Pot and Mosaic: African Americans and Puerto Ricans in the New York Political Economy (Philadelphia: Temple University Press).

• Torres, Andrés and José E. Velázquez (eds) (1998). The Puerto Rican Movement: Voices from the Diaspora (Philadelphia: Temple University Press).

• Vargas and Vatajs -Ramos, Carlos. (2006). Settlement Patterns and Residential Segregation of Puerto Ricans in the United States, Policy Report, Vol. 1, No. 2 (New York: Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, Hunter College, Fall).

• Wakefield, Dan. Island in the City: The World of Spanish Harlem. New York: Houghton Mifflin. 1971. Ch. 2. pp. 42–60.

• Whalen, Carmen Teresa (2001). From Puerto Rico to Philadelphia: Puerto Rican Workers and Postwar Economics (Philadelphia: Temple University Press).

• Whalen, Carmen Teresa, and Víctor Vázquez-Hernández (eds.) (2006). The Puerto Rican Diaspora: Historical Perspectives (Philadelphia: Temple University Press).

External links

• Puerto Rican Americans
• Origins of the Young Lords
• US Puerto Ricans.org Re/envisioning the Diaspora
• Boricuation Cultural Foundation