Stateside Puerto Ricans

Stateside Puerto Ricans

Total population
5,450,472 1.7% of the U.S. population (2016)
Regions with significant populations
New York, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and throughout the United States
Languages
Spanish and English
Religion
majority Roman Catholic and Protestant, minority African diasporic religions
Related ethnic groups
Criollos, Mestizos, Mulattos, Taíno, African people, Europeans

A Stateside Puerto Rican, also ambiguously Puerto Rican American (Spanish: puertorriqueño-americano, puertorriqueño-estadounidense) is a term for residents in the United States who were born in or trace family ancestry to Puerto Rico.

Puerto Ricans who were born in Puerto Rico are American citizens as if they were born in the United States. Consequently, using the term Puerto Rican American only for those living in the continental United States is inaccurate and misleading.

At 10% of the Latino population in the United States, Puerto Ricans are the second-largest Latino group nationwide, after Mexican-Americans, and are 1.5% of the entire population of the United States.

Although the 2010 Census counted the number of Puerto Ricans living in the States at 4.6 million, estimates in 2012 show the Puerto Rican population to be over 5 million.

Despite newer migration trends, New York City continues to be home by a significant margin to the largest demographic and cultural center for Puerto Rican on the Mainland United States, with Philadelphia having the second-largest community. The portmanteau "Nuyorican" refers to Puerto Ricans and their descendants in the New York City metropolitan area. A large portion of the Puerto Rican population in the United States resides in the Northeastern United States and Florida, with Holyoke, Massachusetts and Buenaventura Lakes, Florida having the highest percentages of Puerto Rican residents of any municipalities in the country. There are also significant Puerto Rican populations in the Chicago metropolitan area and the South Atlantic States, from Maryland to Georgia, and other states like Ohio, Texas, and California.

Identity

Teatro Puerto Rico (1950s) in the South Bronx, New York City.

Puerto Ricans have been migrating to the United States since the 19th century and migrating since 1898 (after it was transferred from Spain to the United States) 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 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.

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 strength of stateside Puerto Rican identity is fueled by a number of factors. These include the large circular migration between the island and the mainland 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. Notable attributes that set the stateside Puerto Rican population apart from the rest of the US Hispanic community, is facts such as, Puerto Ricans have the highest military enrollment rates compared to other Hispanics, Puerto Ricans are more likely to be proficient in English than any other Hispanic group, and Puerto Ricans are also more likely to intermarry other ethnic groups, and far more likely to intermarry or "intermingle" specifically with blacks than any other Hispanic group.

Migration history

Since 1898, Puerto Rico has been under the control of the United States, fueling migratory patterns between the mainland and the island. Even during Spanish rule, Puerto Ricans settled in the US. However, it was not until the end of the Spanish–American War in 1898 that a significant influx of Puerto Rican workers to the US began. With its 1898 victory, the United States acquired Puerto Rico from Spain and has retained sovereignty since. The 1917 Jones–Shafroth Act made all Puerto Ricans US citizens, freeing them from immigration barriers. The massive migration of Puerto Ricans to the mainland United States was largest in the early and late 20th century, prior to its resurgence in the early 21st century.

U.S. political and economic interventions in Puerto Rico created the conditions for emigration, "by concentrating wealth in the hands of US corporations and displacing workers." Policymakers "promoted colonization plans and contract labor programs to reduce the population. U.S. employers, often with government support, recruited Puerto Ricans as a source of low-wage labor 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, and Boston. However, in more recent years, there has been a significant resurgence in migration from Puerto Rico to New York and New Jersey, with an apparently multifactorial allure to Puerto Ricans, primarily for economic and cultural considerations; with the Puerto Rican population of the New York City Metropolitan Area increasing from 1,177,430 in 2010 to a Census-estimated 1,494,670 in 2016, maintaining its status as the largest metropolitan concentration and cultural center for Puerto Rican Americans by a significant margin on the U.S. mainland. The absolute increase in the size of the Puerto Rican population of the New York metropolitan area between 2010 and 2016 roughly approximates the total Puerto Rican population of the Orlando Metropolitan Area, which enumerated over 320,000 in 2013. The Puerto Rican populations of the Orlando and Philadelphia metropolitan areas approximate each other in following a distant second and third only to the New York metropolitan area in size.

New York City neighborhoods such as East Harlem in Upper Manhattan, the South Bronx, and Bushwick in Brooklyn are often the most associated with the stateside Puerto Rican population. However, several neighborhoods in eastern North Philadelphia, especially Fairhill, have some of the highest concentrations of Puerto Ricans in the United States, Fairhill having the highest when being compared to other big city neighborhoods.

New York City

Main articles: Puerto Rican migration to New York City and Nuyorican

National Puerto Rican Parade in New York City, 2005.

Between the 1950s and the 1980s, large numbers of Puerto Ricans migrated to New York, especially to Brooklyn, the Bronx, and the Spanish Harlem and Loisaida neighborhoods of Manhattan. 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%, with most (69%) living in East Harlem. 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. There are significant Puerto Rican communities in all five boroughs.

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 US cities. As of 1973, about "46.2% of the Puerto Rican migrants in East Harlem were living below the federal poverty line." However, more affluent Puerto Rican American professionals have migrated to suburban neighborhoods on Long Island and in Westchester County, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

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, and to many forms of Latin music including Boogaloo, Salsa, Latin House, and Freestyle. Puerto Ricans in New York created their own cultural movement, and cultural institutions such as the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

New York City also became the mecca for freestyle music in the 1980s, of which Puerto Rican singer-songwriters represented an integral component. Puerto Rican influence in popular music continues in the 21st century, encompassing major artists such as Jennifer Lopez.

Philadelphia

Main article: Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia

As of the 2010 U.S. Census, there was an estimate of 121,643 Puerto Ricans living in Philadelphia, up from 91,527 in 2000. Representing 8% of Philadelphia's total population and 75% of the city's Hispanic/Latino population, as of 2010. Puerto Ricans are the largest Latino group in the city and that, outside Puerto Rico, Philadelphia now has the second largest Puerto Rican population, estimated at over 130,000. Since 2010, Philadelphia replaced the city of Chicago as the city with the second-largest Puerto Rican population, Chicago's slightly shrunk and Philadelphia's continued to grow, more than ever before, not only having the second largest Puerto Rican population, but also one of the fastest-growing. Most sources, including the most reliable, the United States Census Bureau, estimated that as of 2010, Puerto Ricans made up between 70-80 percent of Philadelphia's Hispanic/Latino population. Other sources put the percentage Puerto Ricans make up of Philadelphia's Hispanic population, as high as 90% and others as low as 64%. The influx of other Latino and Hispanic groups between 2000 and 2010, may have slightly decreased the proportion Puerto Ricans make up of the city's total Latino and Hispanic population. Though, unlike many other large northern cities, which have declining or slow-growing Puerto Rican populations, Philadelphia has one of the fastest-growing Puerto Rican populations in the country.

Chicago

See also: Puerto Ricans in Chicago

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

Puerto Ricans first arrived in the early part of the 20th century from more affluent families to study at colleges or universities. In the 1930s there was an enclave around 35th and Michigan. In the 1950s two small barrios emerged known as la Clark and La Madison just North and West of Downtown, near hotel jobs and then where the factories once stood. These communities were displaced by the city as part of their slum clearance. In 1968, a community group, the Young Lords mounted protests and demonstrations and occupied several buildings of institutions demanding that they invest in low income housing. Humboldt Park is home to the one of the largest Puerto Rican communities in Chicago and is known as "Little Puerto Rico" or Paseo Boricua.

Demographics of Stateside Puerto Ricans

Main article: List of Puerto Rican-American communities

In 1950, about a quarter of a million Puerto Rican natives lived "stateside", or in one of the U.S. states. In March 2012 that figure had risen to about 1.5 million. That is, slightly less than a third of the 5 million Puerto Ricans living stateside were born on the island. Puerto Ricans are also the second-largest Hispanic group in the USA after those of Mexican descent.

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1910	1,513	—
1920	11,811	+680.6%
1930	52,774	+346.8%
1940	69,967	+32.6%
1950	226,110	+223.2%
1960	892,513	+294.7%
1970	1,391,463	+55.9%
1980	2,014,000	+44.7%
1990	2,728,000	+35.5%
2000	3,406,178	+24.9%
2010	4,623,716	+35.7%
2015	5,372,759	+16.2%
Source: The Puerto Rican Diaspora: Historical Perspectives

Population by state

Relative to the population of each state

The Puerto Rican population by state, showing the percentage of the state's population that identifies itself as Puerto Rican relative to the state/territory population as a whole is shown in the following table.

State/Territory	Puerto Rican-American 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
US Virgin Islands	10,981	0.7
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

Out of all 50 states, the ones with the highest net inflow of Puerto Ricans moving there from the island of Puerto Rico between 2000 and 2010 included Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. New York, which has joined this list since 2010, remains a major destination for Puerto Rican migrants, though only a third of recent Puerto Rican arrivals went to New York between 2000 and 2010. Of smaller states with populations under 3 million, Delaware has the fastest growing number of Puerto Ricans. There is also a notable number of stateside-born Puerto Ricans moving from the Northeastern states to South Atlantic states, especially to Florida, but to a lesser degree many are also going to Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia as well. The Northeast Corridor remains a major destination for Puerto Ricans, however the population is also growing throughout the United States, particularly in the South.

Although Puerto Ricans constitute over 9 percent of the Hispanic population in the United States, 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 each respective 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. U.S. states with higher percentages of Puerto Ricans then the national average (1.5%) as of 2010, are Connecticut (7.1%), New York (5.5%), New Jersey (4.9%), Florida (4.5%), Massachusetts (4.1%), Rhode Island (3.3%), Hawaii (3.2%), Pennsylvania (2.9%), and Delaware (2.5%).

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

Relative to the Puerto Rican population nationwide

Puerto Rican population by state, showing the percentage of Puerto Rican residents in each state relative to the Puerto Rican population in the United States as a whole.

State/Territory	Puerto Rican-American Population (2010 Census)	Percentage
New York	1,070,558	23.15
Florida	847,550	18.33
New Jersey	434,092	9.39
Pennsylvania	366,082	7.92
Massachusetts	266,125	5.76
Connecticut	252,972	5.47
California	189,945	4.11
Illinois	182,989	3.96
Texas	130,576	2.82
Ohio	94,965	2.05
Virginia	73,958	1.60
Georgia	71,987	1.56
North Carolina	71,800	1.55
Wisconsin	46,323	1.00
Hawai'i	44,116	0.95
Maryland	42,572	0.92
Michigan	37,267	0.81
Rhode Island	34,979	0.76
Arizona	34,787	0.75
Indiana	30,304	0.66
South Carolina	26,493	0.57
Washington	25,838	0.56
Colorado	22,995	0.50
Delaware	22,533	0.49
Tennessee	21,060	0.46
Nevada	20,664	0.45
Missouri	12,236	0.27
Alabama	12,225	0.26
Oklahoma	12,223	0.26
New Hampshire	11,729	0.25
Louisiana	11,603	0.25
Kentucky	11,454	0.25
Minnesota	10,807	0.23
Kansas	9,247	0.20
Oregon	8,845	0.19
New Mexico	7,964	0.17
Utah	7,182	0.16
Mississippi	5,888	0.13
Iowa	4,885	0.11
Arkansas	4,789	0.10
Alaska	4,502	0.10
Maine	4,377	0.10
West Virginia	3,701	0.08
Nebraska	3,242	0.07
DC	3,129	0.07
Idaho	2,910	0.06
Vermont	2,261	0.05
Montana	1,491	0.03
South Dakota	1,483	0.03
Wyoming	1,026	0.02
North Dakota	987	0.02
USA	4,623,716	100

Even with such movement of Puerto Ricans from traditional to non-traditional states, the Northeast continues to dominate in both concentration and population.

The largest populations of Puerto Ricans are situated in the following metropolitan areas (Source: Census 2010):

1. New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA MSA - 1,177,430
2. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL MSA - 269,781
3. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD MSA - 238,866
4. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL MSA - 207,727
5. Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI MSA - 188,502
6. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL MSA - 143,886
7. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH MSA - 115,087
8. Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT MSA - 102,911
9. Springfield, MA MSA - 87,798
10. New Haven-Milford, CT MSA - 77,578

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

Communities with the largest Puerto Rican populations

• New York City: 723,621 Puerto Rican residents, as of 2010; compared to 789,172 in 2000, decrease of 65,551; 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; 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; 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 top 25 US communities with the highest populations of Puerto Ricans (Source: Census 2010)

1. New York City, NY - 723,621
2. Philadelphia, PA - 121,643
3. Chicago, IL - 102,703
4. Springfield, MA - 50,798
5. Hartford, CT - 41,995
6. Newark, NJ - 35,993
7. Bridgeport, CT - 31,881
8. Orlando, FL - 31,201
9. Boston, MA - 30,506
10. Allentown, PA - 29,640
11. Cleveland, OH - 29,286
12. Reading, PA - 28,160
13. Rochester, NY - 27,734
14. Jersey City, NJ - 25,677
15. Waterbury, CT - 24,947
16. Milwaukee, WI - 24,672
17. Tampa, FL - 24,057
18. Camden, NJ - 23,759
19. Worcester, MA - 23,074
20. Buffalo, NY - 22,076
21. New Britain, CT - 21,914
22. Jacksonville, FL - 21,128
23. Paterson, NJ - 21,015
24. New Haven, CT - 20,505
25. Yonkers, NY - 19,875

Communities with high percentages of Puerto Ricans

The top 25 US communities with the highest percentages of Puerto Ricans as a percent of total population (Source: Census 2010)

1. Holyoke, MA - 44.70%
2. Buenaventura Lakes, FL - 44.55%
3. Azalea Park, FL - 36.50%
4. Poinciana, FL - 35.82%
5. Meadow Woods, FL - 35.11%
6. Hartford, CT - 33.66%
7. Springfield, MA - 33.19%
8. Kissimmee, FL - 33.06%
9. Reading, PA - 31.97%
10. Camden, NJ - 30.72%
11. New Britain, CT - 29.93%
12. Lancaster, PA - 29.23%
13. Vineland, NJ - 26.74%
14. Union Park, FL - 25.81%
15. Allentown, PA - 25.11%
16. Windham, CT - 23.99%
17. Lebanon, PA - 23.87%
18. Perth Amboy, NJ - 23.79%
19. Southbridge, MA - 23.08%
20. Amsterdam, NY - 22.80%
21. Harlem Heights, FL - 22.63%
22. Waterbury, CT - 22.60%
23. Lawrence, MA - 22.20%
24. Dunkirk, NY - 22.14%
25. Bridgeport, CT - 22.10%

The 10 large cities (over 200,000 in population) with the highest percentages of Puerto Rican residents include (2010 Census):

1. Rochester, NY: 13.2 percent
2. Orlando, FL: 13.1 percent
3. Newark, NJ: 13.0 percent
4. Jersey City, NJ: 10.4 percent
5. New York City, NY: 8.9 percent
6. Buffalo, NY: 8.4 percent
7. Philadelphia, PA: 8.0 percent
8. Cleveland, OH: 7.4 percent
9. Tampa, FL: 7.2 percent
10. Boston, MA: 4.9 percent

Dispersion before 2000

Like other groups, the theme of "dispersal" has had a long history with the stateside Puerto Rican community. More recent demographic developments appear at first blush as if the stateside Puerto Rican population has been dispersing in greater numbers. Duany had described this process as a “reconfiguration” and termed it 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. However, it is not clear whether these settlement changes can be characterized as simple population dispersal. 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.

Migration trends since 2000

Aubrey Plaza

New York State has resumed its net in-migration of Puerto Rican Americans since 2006, a dramatic reversal from being the only state to register a decrease in its Puerto Rican population between 1990 and 2000. The Puerto Rican population of New York State, still the largest in the United States, is estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to have increased from 1,070,558 in 2010 to 1,103,067 in 2013.

Bruno Mars

Puerto Rican migration trends since 2006 have been highly complex: New York State gained more Puerto Rican migrants from Puerto Rico (31% of the mainland total) as well as from elsewhere on the mainland (20% of interstate moves) between 2006 and 2012 than any other U.S. state, in absolute numbers, even while the southern United States gained the highest number as an overall national region. Also, unlike the initial pattern of migration several decades ago, this second significant Puerto Rican migration into New York and surrounding states is being driven by movement not only into New York City proper, but also into the city's surrounding suburban areas, including areas outside New York State, especially Northern New Jersey, such that the New York City metropolitan area gained the highest number of additional Puerto Rican Americans of any metropolitan area between 2010 and 2016, from 1,177,430 in 2010 to 1,494,670 in 2016.

Florida witnessed an even larger increase than New York State between 2010 and 2013, from 847,550 in 2010 to 987,663 in 2013, with significant migration from Puerto Rico, as well as some migration from Chicago and New York to Florida. However, most of the Puerto Rican migration to Florida has been to the central portion of the state, surrounding Orlando. Orlando, and to a lesser degree Philadelphia and Tampa have witnessed large increases in their Puerto Rican populations between 2010 and 2013 and now have some of the fastest growing Puerto Rican populations in the country. According to the Pew Research Center, Puerto Rican arrivals from the island since 2000 are also less well off than earlier migrants, with lower household incomes and a greater likelihood of living in poverty. After Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in September 2017, devastating the infrastructure of the island, New York, Florida, and New Jersey were expected to be the three likeliest destinations for Puerto Rican migrants to the U.S. mainland, when premised upon family ties.

Concentration

Residential segregation is a phenomenon characterizing many stateside Puerto Rican population concentrations. While blacks are the most residentially segregated group in the United States, a 2002 study shows that stateside Puerto Ricans are the most segregated among US Latinos.

• 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 are disproportionately clustered in what has been called the "Boston-New York-Philadelphia-Washington Corridor" and in Florida along the East Coast. The U.S. Northeast Corridor, 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, also a major global power center.

Segmentation

These shifts in the relative sizes of Latino populations have also changed the role of the stateside Puerto Rican community. 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.

Race

Puerto Ricans in the United States - 2010 U.S Census
Self-identified Race			Percent of population
White alone			53.1%
Black			8.7%
Asian			0.5%
American Indians and Alaska Natives			0.9%
Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders			0.2%
Two or more races			8.7%
Some Other Race			27.8%
Total			100%

According to the 2010 US census, of the stateside Puerto Rican population, about 53.1% self-identified as white, about 8.7% self-identified as black, about 0.9% as American Indian, about 0.5% as Asian, and 36.7% as mixed or other. Though over half self-identified as white, the Puerto Rican population is largely made up of multi-racials, most Puerto Ricans are mixed to varying degrees, usually of white European/North African, black West African, and indigenous Taino ancestry. The average genomewide individual ancestry proportions have been estimated as 66% European, 18% West African, and 16% Native American. However, there are significant numbers of (pure or nearly pure) blacks and whites within the Puerto Rican population as well. Historically, under Spanish and American rule, Puerto Rico underwent a whitening process, in particular, the island had laws like the Regla del Sacar, in which people of mixed-race origin were identified as "white", the opposite of the one-drop rule in the United States.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Puerto Rico

Puerto Rican culture is a blend of Spanish, Taíno, and West African cultures, with recent influences from the United States and neighboring Latin American and Caribbean countries. Due to Puerto Rico's status as a US territory, people in Puerto Rico have the most exposure to US culture and Puerto Ricans in the mainland United States tend to be the most "American-ized" of all major Hispanic groups. Though, 1st-generation Puerto Rico-born migrants tend to be more traditional, while people born in the US mainland of Puerto Rican ancestry tend to merge traditional Puerto Rican culture with mainland American culture.

Language

See also: Puerto Rican Spanish

The Puerto Rican variant of Spanish is mainly derived from the Spanish spoken in southern Spain and the Canary Islands. It also has noticeable influences from numerous languages, including Taíno and various West African languages. It is very similar to other Caribbean Spanish variants.

About 83% of Puerto Ricans living in the United States ages 5 and older speak English proficiently, of whom 53% are bilingual in Spanish and English, and another 30% speak only English fluently with little proficiency in Spanish. The other 17% speak only Spanish fluently and report speaking English "less than very well" with little proficiency in English, compared to 34% of Hispanics overall who report doing so. Many first- and second- generation Puerto Ricans living in New York speak "Nuyorican English", a mix of local New York English with Puerto Rican Spanish influences, while many Puerto Ricans living in other US cities speak with a similar English accent. More Americanized Puerto Ricans speak the local English accent with little to no Spanish traces, sounding similar to other local groups including Black Americans or assimilated Italian Americans.

Religion

The vast majority of Puerto Ricans in the United States are adherents of Christianity. Though, Catholics are the largest in number, there are also significant numbers of followers of numerous Protestant denominations. Protestants make up a larger proportion of the Stateside Puerto Rican population then they do of the population of Puerto Rico. Many Puerto Rican Catholics also cohesively practice Santería, a Yoruba-Catholic syncretic mix. Smaller portions of the population are non-religious. A very small number of assimilated stateside Puerto Ricans practice other religions, particularly in the inner city neighborhoods of Philadelphia and New York.

Intermarriage

Puerto Ricans have a 38.5% intermarriage rate, the highest amongst Latino groups in the United States.

Contributions

See also: List of Stateside Puerto Ricans

Numerous Puerto Ricans born and raised in the United States made notable contributions in government, science, military, television, music, sports, art, law enforcement, modeling, education, journalism, religion, science, among other areas. Conversely, cultural ties between New York and Puerto Rico are strong. In September 2017, following the immense destruction wrought upon Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo led an aid delegation to San Juan, including engineers form the New York Power Authority to help restore Puerto Rico's electrical grid.

Socioeconomics

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. Middle-class neighborhoods predominately populated by Puerto Ricans are mostly found throughout Central Florida, including Orlando, Tampa, and their suburbs. Though, significant numbers of middle-class Puerto Ricans can also be found in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, in upper North Philadelphia, particularly around the Olney-Juniata-Lawncrest area, and in Camden County, New Jersey outside the city of Camden, and in the New York City metropolitan area, particularly in the eastern portion of the Bronx and Westchester County, as well as scattered throughout the United States, in both traditional Puerto Rican settlements in the Northeast and Midwest, as well as in progressive sunbelt cities of the South and West.

The Latino market and remittances to Puerto Rico

The combined income for stateside Puerto Ricans is a significant share of the large and growing Latino market in the United States and 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 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 countries 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.

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).

When looking at gender it needs to be clarified that Puerto Rican women face three different types of oppression under Capitalism in the United States. The three types of additional oppression that they face are, being oppressed for being Puerto Rican, second is the oppression they face because they are females, and the last is that they are oppressed by their own me. The women are used as cheap labor and are working low wage jobs such as factories, mass assembly lines, hospitals, and other institutions as well. Keeping the wages for Puerto Rican women low does not allow them to grow in their occupation or society which results in no economic growth. However, it not only directly effects the women but the men as well. Due to the patriarchy society that the United States has adopted giving Puerto Rican women jobs and not the men creates disruption in the household. The reason for this is due to the woman becoming the breadwinner. This results in the men not fitting into the capitalistic society because in order for a man to becoming something in a capitalistic society they need to have money and status.

Educational attainment

Stateside Puerto Ricans, along with other US Latinos, have experienced the long-term problem of a high school dropout rate that has resulted in relatively low educational attainment.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, while in Puerto Rico more than 20% of Hispanics have a bachelor's degree, only 16% of stateside Puerto Ricans did as of March 2012.

Social issues

According to U.S. Census figures, the Puerto Rican population has one of the highest poverty rates among all ethnic groups in the United States. The Puerto Rican community is also one of the most segregated ethnic groups in the country. The stateside Puerto Rican community has partnered with the African American community, particularly in cities such as New York and Philadelphia, not only because of cultural similarities, but also to combat racism and disenfranchisement of the mid to late 20th century in their communities as a unified force. Though, often perceived as largely poor, there is evidence of growing economic clout, as stated earlier.

Political participation

Puerto Rican Democratic members of the United States Congress Luis Gutiérrez (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 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 as mayors in three major cities: Miami, Hartford, and Camden. Luis A. Quintana, born in Añasco, Puerto Rico, was sworn in as the first Latino mayor of Newark, New Jersey in November 2013, assuming the unexpired term of Cory Booker, who vacated the position to become a U.S. Senator from New Jersey.

There are various ways in which stateside Puerto Ricans have exercised their influence. These include protests, campaign contributions and lobbying, and voting. Compared to the United States, voter participation by Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico is very large. 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 voter participation of stateside Puerto Rican. 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.

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.

The reasons for the differences in Puerto Rican voter participation have been an object of much discussion, but relatively little scholarly research.

Voter statistics

Breakdown of Latinos by voting registration stage in 2000. C-VAP stands for Citizen Voting Age Population (Citizens 18 years of age and older)

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 US military, the turnout rate was 72.1 percent, compared to 48.6 percent for those who never served.

Notable people

For a more comprehensive list, see List of Stateside Puerto Ricans.

See also

• Puerto Rican citizenship
• List of Puerto Ricans
• List of Puerto Rican-American communities
• Puerto Rican culture
• Puerto Rican people
• Demographics of Puerto Rico
• Outline of Puerto Rico
• Cultural diversity in Puerto Rico
  • Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico
  • French immigration to Puerto Rico
  • Crypto-Judaism
  • German immigration to Puerto Rico
  • Irish immigration to Puerto Rico
  • Royal Decree of Graces of 1815
• Index of Puerto Rico-related articles
• History of women in Puerto Rico
• Military history of Puerto Rico
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Puerto Rico
• 51-star flag
• Piragua (food)
• Young Lords
• Teatro Puerto Rico

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External links

• Puerto Rican Americans
• Origins of the Young Lords
• US Puerto Ricans.org Re/envisioning the Diaspora
• Boricuation Cultural Foundation
• Centro De Estudios Puertorriquenos/Hunter College
• Lincoln Park Puerto Rican Oral Histories/Grand Valley State University