It’s not secret that over the last decade the Puerto Rican population living stateside has grown at a accelerated rate. According to the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, between the years 2000 and 2014 the total amount of boricuas in the U.S. jumped from about 3.4 million to a whooping 5.3 million, surpassing the population in the island. Here we take a look into important facts about the diáspora boricua.
Who are they?
Boricuas are the second biggest Latino group in the United States, comprising 1.6% of the total population in the country. Last year, around 84,000 Puerto Ricans left the island. According to the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute, the median age of those who moved stateside and the diaspora in general was 28-years-old.
Many of those who leave are young professionals. Despite the lower rates of higher educational attainment, those in the U.S. have higher high school graduation rates and some college experience.
According to the Center for Puerto Rican studies, 62.4% of the diaspora are part of the labor force. In the island, the number only reaches 43.7%.
Where are they living?
The majority of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. live in the states of New York and Florida. In 2014, the Sunshine State joined New York as the only other state with over a million boricuas. Even though most Puerto Ricans are concentrated in the Northeast region, they also reside out west in places like California and in Midwestern states, such as Illinois and Ohio. Other rapidly growing states in the South include Texas, Georgia and North Carolina.
Los Que Se Fueron: Stories of Young Boricuas in the Diaspora 