2008 KIDS COUNT Data Book Online >
Summary and Findings
Child Well-Being in Puerto Rico
Beginning in 2007, data on child well-being for children living on the island of Puerto Rico have been included in the KIDS COUNT Data Book. The data for Puerto Rico come from the same data sources as the information we include for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. As data have only been available recently for all 10 indicators, we are unable to include information on trends in this year’s Data Book. In addition, we do not include Puerto Rico in our state rankings, as comparisons with states are not meaningful on many indicators. Currently, data for these indicators are not available for the U.S. Virgin Islands, although we hope to have information from the Virgin Islands Community Survey for inclusion in the future.
- In 2006, there were an estimated 1 million children on the island of Puerto Rico. This represents a larger child population than that of about half of the states in the United States.
- On 8 of the 10 key measures of child wellbeing, these children face higher levels of risk overall than the U.S. average.
- The child poverty rate for Puerto Rico (56 percent) is more than three times the level in the United States as a whole (18 percent).
- Babies born in Puerto Rico are far more likely to be of low birthweight (12.8 percent) and born to teen mothers (61 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19) than in the U.S. overall (8.2 percent and 40 per 1,000, respectively).
- However, the rate of deaths among children ages 1 to 14 (13 per 100,000) and teens ages 15 to 19 (63 per 100,000) are both lower than the national rates.
