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Puerto Rico Has Higher Homeownership, Larger Households

Residents of Puerto Rico had a higher homeownership rate, had more people per household and were less likely to move than U.S. stateside residents, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data from the 2006 Puerto Rico Community Survey.
Puerto Rico's homeownership rate of 74.1 percent was lower than only two states -- Minnesota (76.3 percent) and Michigan (75.2 percent). There were 3.13 persons per household in Puerto Rico, compared with 2.61 in the United States, and 7.1 percent of Puerto Ricans moved within the commonwealth in 2006, compared with 13.5 percent who moved within the same U.S. state.
These are among the wide range of data now available annually from the Census Bureau's Puerto Rico Community Survey. 

Among the other findings are:
• According to Census Bureau population estimates program, there were 3.9 million people living in Puerto Rico in 2006. Of these, nearly 20 percent were children and 12.8 percent age 65 and over. The median age of Puerto Rico residents was 34.7. 

Households in Puerto Rico were more likely than those in the United States to contain at least one person 65 and over, 29.3 percent compared with 23.2 percent, and at least one person under 18, 38.8 percent compared with 34.6 percent. 


• From 2000 to 2006, Puerto Rico's high school completion rate increased from 60 percent to 66.1 percent, and its bachelor's degree attainment rate increased from 18.3 percent to 20.7 percent among people 25 years and over.
• Since 2000, Puerto Rico's individual poverty rate decreased from 48.2 percent to 45.4 percent. However, this rate was more than three times as high as the rate for the United States overall and more than twice as high as any state. 

Median earnings of full-time, year-round workers were $19,280, with men earning slightly more ($19,750) than women ($18,803). At $20,425, the median family income in Puerto Rico was about a third that of the United States ($58,526) and about half that of Mississippi ($42,805), the state with one of the lowest median family incomes. Among municipios, Bayamon, Carolina, Guaynabo, San Juan, Toa Alta and Trujillo Alto had median family incomes that were higher than the median for the commonwealth.
• People changed residences at a lower rate within Puerto Rico (8 percent) than within the U.S. overall (16.8 percent). 

In 2006, 4.5 percent of Puerto Rico's residents lived in the same municipio one year ago, 2.5 percent lived in a different municipio, 0.8 percent lived in the United States mainland and 0.1 percent lived abroad. 

For Puerto Rico, 91.7 percent of the total population was native born, 5.1 percent were born in the United States or U.S. Island Areas, 0.3 percent were born abroad of an American parent and 2.9 percent were foreign born.
For more information, visit www.census.gov and www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/index.htm.

Source: PR Newswire/Hispanic PR Wire