San Juan, Mar 30 (EFE).- The Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics (IEPR) reported this Thursday that in a two-year period, from 2020 to 2022, the island suffered a 2% drop in its population, estimated at 64,000 inhabitants.
This is indicated by the population estimates for the month of July 2022 compared to the same month in 2020, according to the United States Census Bureau and given by the IEPR in a press release.
These statistics refer to July 1, 2022 and include estimates of the total population for each municipality and the population change in the current decade, explained the IEPR in the note.
Compared to the 2020 Decennial Census with a reference date of April 1, 2020, compared to the most recent year available, July 1, 2022, the estimates indicate that changes in the population of residents in the municipalities ranged from 0.8 to -7.2%.
99% of the 78 municipalities that make up Puerto Rico suffered a drop in their population. Only the municipality of Rincón, on the northwest coast, achieved a slight increase, of 0.8%.
Meanwhile, some 15 municipalities reflected an estimated reduction of more than 3% in the compared period.
The five municipalities with the highest percentages of population decline were Guánica (-7.2%), Loíza (-4.4%), Guayanilla (-4%), Ponce (-3.9%) and Maricao (-3.8%). %).
Four of the five municipalities are located in the south and west of Puerto Rico, and Loíza, for its part, in the northeast.
Likewise, the five municipalities with the lowest percentages of population decrease were Barranquitas (-0.1%), Naranjito (-0.1%), Aibonito (-0.3%), Isabela (-0.4%) and Moca ( -0.5%).
The first three municipalities are located in the central zone (Barranquitas, Naranjito and Aibonito) and the last two (Isabela and Moca) in the western zone of Puerto Rico.
Given all these data, the senior manager of IEPR Statistical Projects, Alberto Velázquez Estrada, assured that “the pattern of population estimates continues to show a downward trend.”
Puerto Rico, in addition, is approaching two decades -since 2005- “of being an increasingly smaller resident population but with a different demographic composition.”
