Survey reveals Florida Puerto Ricans prioritize state issues over Puerto Rico’s status debate

The hub’s director highlighted a key finding from the survey: for Puerto Ricans in Florida, daily state issues take precedence over the debate on statehood.

With the general election approaching, the UCF Puerto Rico Research Hub (PRRH) wanted to explore what Puerto Ricans in Florida think about important issues such as politics, education, and economy.

Florida is the state with the largest number of Puerto Ricans in the nation: 1.2 million, according to CENSUS data.

RELATED: Want to help increase voter turnout in Florida? Here are 5 ways.

The survey was distributed between March, April, and May, while President Joe Biden was still seeking reelection.  The questions focused on issues such as politics, health, education, and Puerto Rico, among others.

Fernando Rivera, director of PRRH, highlighted the complexity of the Puerto Rican community in Florida, as it is made up of Puerto Ricans who were born or have lived for decades in the Sunshine State, those who come from states such as New York, Chicago, or Pennsylvania, those who arrived before Hurricane Maria in 2017, and the huge wave that arrived after the natural disaster.

These differences were taken into account in the study. Most of the respondents moved to Florida in the 2010s, while the vast majority were born in Puerto Rico. Those not born in Puerto Rico were mostly born in New York.

Once the HUB had the results, Rivera traveled to Washington, D.C. to speak about them in Congress, the White House, and think tanks dedicated to Puerto Rican issues.

“There has always been this lack of knowledge about what is happening with Puerto Ricans in Florida. There is a lot of talk at the national level, at the level of the other states, from our colleagues in New York, in Connecticut, and elsewhere. And we know that there is a connection with Puerto Ricans in Florida and what is happening in Puerto Rico,” Rivera told Floricuas.

The majority of survey’s participants were from Central Florida’s counties, especially Orange (25%), Osceola (14%), and Hillsborough (11%) counties. 

Fifty-two percent of participants were women, and the majority had some college or associate’s degree.

Most participants were full-time employees and did not receive any form of public assistance.

Ninety-five percent of participants are registered to vote. Forty-three percent are affiliated with the Democratic Party, 22% with the Republican Party, 30% no party affiliation, and 5% other.

As for the issues that matter most to them when voting, Floricuas chose in order of priority: education, economy, cost of living, health care, and housing, among others.

The issues they showed the least interest in were abortion, climate change, and wokeness.

Rivera highlighted a key finding from the survey: for Puerto Ricans in Florida, daily state issues take precedence over the debate on statehood.

Traditionally, both Puerto Rican politicians and candidates in the US use the issue of the island’s status to mobilize Puerto Ricans to the polls.

RELATED: Project 2025 and reproductive rights drive Florida voters to the polls

“Basically, they are the day-to-day issues: education, economy, cost of living. Those things that are reinforced day by day, when you have to go to the supermarket, when you have to get gas, when you have to pay rent, when you have to pay insurance. These are things that really are the issues that interest Puerto Ricans here much more than simply whether Puerto Rico is going to be a state or not,” Rivera said.

In September, PRRH will conduct a second part of the survey, to investigate some of the results and see the support for the new Democratic Party candidate, Kamala Harris.