Puerto Rico’s population before and after Hurricane Maria

In the last 20 years, the island of Puerto Rico has undergone a series of environmental, social, and economic crises. While the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017 brought nationwide and international attention to the conditions in Puerto Rico, the island has had a history of exposure to several environmental hazards and risks including tsunamis, floods, tropical storms, coral reef deterioration, severe draught, and coastal erosion. All indicators of the impact of climate change on the island’s ecological infrastructure. In addition to these hazards and risks, Puerto Rico’s financial crisis dating back to the early 2000s has reduced the capacity to maintain critical energy, health care, transportation, and communications structures. This incapacity magnified the impact of Hurricane Maria resulting in 100% loss of electricity and communication during the critical first days after the hurricane. Years of economic struggles have had serious socioeconomic ramifications that have fueled extensive out-migration to the continental USA (Mora et al. 2017). The population of Puerto Rico has decreased from 3,725,789 in 2010 to 3,193,694 in 2019, close to a half a million-population loss in less than 10 years (U.S. Census 2020). Hurricane Maria also exposed the scarcity of population data, issues in collecting new data, and to the value of existing administrative data and vital records. As the authors in this issue point out, Puerto Rico’s demographic data were limited in demonstrating the effects of Hurricane Maria’s long-term decline in population trough either mortality or migration. Indeed, during the initial months after the Hurricane, it became increasingly difficult to estimate the number of people that left the island. It also became increasingly difficult to estimate the casualties associated with the hurricane. Estimates ranged from an initial official death toll of 64 that was later refuted by a public health study which estimated the death toll close to 4000 deaths (Kishore et al. 2018). Subsequently, a study commissioned by the government of Puerto Rico put the estimated death toll at 2975 deaths (Santos-Burgoa et al. 2018). Population and Environment https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-020-00356-4