Puerto Rico’s Migration Increases

Global Business

The financial crisis in Puerto Rico has left the island buried in $70 billion in debt, and the government just had a bond sale to finance their fiscal deficit. Puerto Ricans are leaving the island at a near record rate.

The mass exodus seen in the 2000s is the worst since almost half a million people left in the 1950s. After growing gradually up to 2009, Puerto Rico’s population has since dropped by nearly 10% and what makes it even worse, highly educated people are leaving for better opportunities elsewhere.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce Census, it has estimated that in the past two years, more than 80 thousand Puerto Ricans left the island nation. Many question why would locals leave a place that has been described as a Caribbean paradise?  Some analysts and lawmakers agree that the economy and lack of opportunities are part of the exodus. Puerto Rico’s unemployment rate is at 15.2 percent, more than double the U.S. national average.

Puerto Rico’s Migration Increases

After growing gradually up to 2009, Puerto Rico's population has since dropped by nearly 10% and what makes it even worse, highly educated people are leaving for better opportunities elsewhere. CCTV's Nitza Soledad Perez has the story.