Experts warn that Puerto Rico’s accelerated reduction in births does not lead to generational replacement.
In 2023, a dramatic reduction in birth rates was recorded in Puerto Rico, according to data from the island’s Demographic Registry.
The 17,772 births registered represent the lowest birth rate that has ever been recorded since the island started keeping birth records in 1888.
RELATED: Puerto Rico’s death toll soared last year because of COVID, natural disasters, and other factors
In 2023 there were 1,391 fewer births than in 2022 and significantly less than in 2013, when 36,580 births were registered.
Experts warn that the accelerated reduction in births does not lead to generational replacement.
For any country to have a generational replacement, the birth rate must be 2.1, however Puerto Rico is below .90.
Demographer Judith Rodríguez, along with other experts, warned that the low birth rate will affect the economic development of the island.
“We already know that we are going to have a shrinking, small, young workforce. That is going to affect the country’s economic development plans,” Rodríguez told El Nuevo Día.
Experts say that the government urgently needs to establish a public policy that reverses this reduction in birth rates.
READ MORE: High energy costs threaten Puerto Rico’s businesses as debt restructuring looms
Some of the proposed solutions are incentivizing people of reproductive age, financial support for extended care taking into account working hours, flexibility in working hours, increasing the number of days of maternity and paternity leave, and improving access to housing with enough spaces to raise children.
“As a society and at the level of public policy, we must emphasize trying to retain and attract people of reproductive age, trying to get them to stay in Puerto Rico, making it as easy as possible for them to have more than one child,” Nabal Bracero, medical director of the organization PROGyn, told El Nuevo Día.
Author
Support Our Cause
Thank you for taking the time to read our work. Before you go, we hope you'll consider supporting our values-driven journalism, which has always strived to make clear what's really at stake for Floridians and our future.
Since day one, our goal here at Floricua has always been to empower people across the state with fact-based news and information. We believe that when people are armed with knowledge about what's happening in their local, state, and federal governments—including who is working on their behalf and who is actively trying to block efforts aimed at improving the daily lives of Florida families—they will be inspired to become civically engaged.
Explore 10 of the oldest buildings in Florida
From the state’s largest cigar factory to a 350-year-old military fort, the oldest buildings in Florida contain multitudes of history. It’s no...
From Roberto Clemente to the Dupont Plaza’s fire: Puerto Rico’s unforgettable December tragedies
These are some of the most significant moments in the island's history that disrupted the holiday season. December, a month typically associated...
Florida’s wildfire season: What you need to know
Discover Florida's year-round wildfire risks, contributing factors, and prevention strategies, plus key historical events and community awareness....
Decline of Florida’s citrus industry hastened by Trump’s tariff tiff
Hurricanes and disease have already taken a tremendous toll on those fragrant trees, not to mention development demand for the land. This weekend I...
