Do U.S. Hispanic data include residents of Puerto Rico?
Most data and other statistics reported on the U.S. Hispanic population do not include residents of Puerto Rico. However, the available data show that socioeconomic trends among Puerto Ricans on the island are somewhat similar to those of Latinos on the U.S. mainland. In 2007, Puerto Rico’s population was estimated to be 3.9 million people, unchanged from 2006. Two-thirds of Hispanic Puerto Ricans age 25 and older have a high school diploma, a rate that is well below that of the total U.S. population (84.5%) but slightly higher than the rate for mainland Latinos (60.6%). More than one-fifth (21.1%) of Hispanic Puerto Ricans have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher, a rate that is lower than the total U.S. population (27.5%) but higher than the rate for the mainland Latino population (12.5%). Poverty rates in Puerto Rico are substantially higher than the rates for both mainland Latinos and the U.S. in general; nearly one-half (45.5%) of the island’s Latino population lived below the po
