Updated Census Data for Puerto Rico

The U.S. Census Bureau has released new information from the most recent Census. One of the biggest pieces of news from the new data is that there are now five states and territories in which people who identify themselves as white are not the largest group: California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. This is a trend across the nation. People who identify as white now constitute 58 percent of the population nationwide, down from 64 percent in 2010, and 69 percent in 2000. The number of people who describe themselves as multiracial has nearly tripled, from 9 million in 2010 to 33.8 million in 2020.

How much has Puerto Rico’s population changed?

In Puerto Rico in particular, it seems possible that the change in population statistics may reflect a change in self-presentation more than a change in the makeup of the population.

Census forms ask whether respondents are Hispanic, and 98.9% of Puerto Ricans choose that option. The choices for racial heritage, however, are White; Black or African-American; American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. A decade ago, 75.8% chose “white.” The number fell to 17.1% in 2020.

In 2010, just 3.3% chose multiracial responses, while in 2020 49.8% did so.

Activists in Puerto Rico worked, leading up to the 2020 census, to encourage more people to choose “black” or multiracial identification. Academics have analyzed attitudes toward ethnic identification in Puerto Rico, pointing out that census data shows that people increasingly chose to identify themselves as white until 1950. There is no evidence that the ethnic makeup of the Island changed during that time, any more than there is evidence that it changed strikingly between 2010 and 2020.