STATE INFO

Status: Commonwealth

Governor: Aníbal Acevedo Vilá (2005)

Capital and largest city (2002 est.): San Juan, 433,412

Other large cities: Bayamón, 224,670; Ponce, 186,112; Carolina, 187,468

Land area: 3,459 sq mi (8,959 sq km); total area: 3,515 sq mi (9,104 sq km)

Population (2010 est.): 3,977,663 (growth rate: 0.3%); birth rate: 11.6/1000; infant mortality rate: 8.2/1000; life expectancy: 78.6; density per sq mi: 1,135. Monetary unit: U.S. dollar

Languages: Spanish and English (both official)

Ethnicity/race: white (mostly Spanish origin) 80.5%, black 8%, Amerindian 0.4%, Asian 0.2%, mixed and other 10.9%

Religions: Roman Catholic 85%, Protestant and other 15%

Literacy rate: 94.1% (2002)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2009 est.): $68.14 billion; per capita $17,200 Real growth rate: –3.9%. Inflation: 6.5% (2003 est.). Unemployment: 12% (2002). Arable land: 4%. Agriculture: sugarcane, coffee, pineapples, plantains, bananas; livestock products, chickens. Labor force: 1.3 million (2000); agriculture 3%, industry 20%, services 77% (2000 est.). Industries: pharmaceuticals, electronics, apparel, food products, tourism. Natural resources: some copper and nickel; potential for onshore and offshore oil. Exports: $46.9 billion (f.o.b., 2001): chemicals, electronics, apparel, canned tuna, rum, beverage concentrates, medical equipment. Imports: $29.1 billion (c.i.f., 2001): chemicals, machinery and equipment, clothing, food, fish, petroleum products. Major trading partners: U.S., UK, Netherlands, Dominican Republic, Ireland, Japan (2004).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 1.038 million (2005); mobile cellular: 3.354 million (2005). Radio broadcast stations: AM 74, FM 53, shortwave 0 (2005). Radios: 2.7 million (1997). Television broadcast stations: 32 (2006). Televisions: 1.021 million (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 413 (2007). Internet users: 915,600 (2005).

Transportation: Railways: total: 96 km (2006). Highways: total: 25,735 km paved: 24,353 km (includes 427 km of expressways) unpaved: 1,382 km (2005). Ports and harbors: Guanica, Guayanilla, Guayama, Playa de Ponce, San Juan. Airports: 29 (2007).

International disputes: none.

Puerto Rico International Movers

International Moving to Rhode Island with Unity Van Lines

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is located in the Caribbean Sea, about 1000 km east-southeast of Miami, Florida A possession of the United States, it consists of the island of Puerto Rico and the islands adjacent to Vieques, Culebra and Mona. Puerto Rico has a mountainous, tropical ecosystem with very little flat land and few mineral resources.

The Governor of Puerto Rico is directly elected for a term of four years. A bicameral Parliament consisting of a 27-member Senate and a House of Representatives of 51 members, all elected for four years. From 1940 to 1968, was in Puerto Rico politics dominated by an association spokesman of the party with the voluntary SU Since then, the New Progressive Party, a party favor U.S. State won five of the last eight gubernatorial elections . Puerto Ricans have voted twice to determine their political status. In 1967, the result was the state of the Commonwealth 60% 39% 1% independence. In 1993, the Commonwealth fell to 48.6% state rose to 46.3%; independence polled 4.4% and 0.6% of ballots were blank or spoiled.

With the formula of the Commonwealth, representing the residents of Puerto Rico lack voting in Congress, and not participate in presidential elections. As U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans are the military service and most federal laws. The residents of the Commonwealth to pay federal taxes on profits generated locally, but the Puerto Rican government income tax rates are set at a level that was more closely parallel federal taxes on land.

When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1493, the island was inhabited by the peaceful Arawak Indians, who were challenged by the warlike Caribs. Puerto Rico remained economically undeveloped until 1830, when the plantations of sugar cane, coffee and snuff have been developed gradually. After Puerto Ricans began to press for independence, Spain granted the island broad powers of self-government in 1897. However, during the Spanish-American War of 1898 American troops invaded the island and Spain ceded it to the U.S. Since then, Puerto Rico remains an unincorporated territory of the United States. Its residents were granted U.S. citizenship under the Jones Act in 1917 were allowed to choose their own governor, beginning in 1948 and now fully administer their internal affairs under a constitution approved by Congress in 1952.

Despite broad popular support for the autonomy of the Commonwealth government and a society rapidly modernizing industrial, there was an expression of discontent. Puerto Rico extremists dramatized their desire for independence in an attempt to assassinate President Truman on 1 November 1950 and March 1, 1954, wounding five Congressmen in an attack on the Capitol USD.

Self-help program of economic development and social welfare (called "Operation Bootstrap") was forged in 1940, four times Governor Luis Munoz Marin. In little more than four decades, a lot of overwhelming poverty of the island, had been removed. This was done in part with the development of industries and services, the latter being associated with a huge growth in tourism. Moreover, many Puerto Ricans moved to the big cities in the Americas

Puerto Rico is an important trading center in the Caribbean, finance, tourism and communications. San Juan is one of the busiest ports in the world of cruising and living in Puerto Rico is still one of the highest in the Western Hemisphere. His future political status, however, remains uncertain. On March 4, 1998, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a law that called for mandatory elections in Puerto Rico to decide the island's permanent political status.

Since 1940, the U.S. Navy had used Vieques bombing range on the island. Protests against the exercises increased in recent years, and a referendum in July 2001, the islanders voted overwhelmingly to close the base. The Navy withdrew from Vieques in May 2003.

On November 2, 2004, gubernatorial elections led to two months and said a court challenge. On January 2, 2005, was Aníbal Acevedo Vila's Popular Democratic Party said the governor. He received 48.4% of the vote and his main challenger, Pedro Rossello's New Progressive Party, 48.2%. Acevedo supported the U.S. state of existing territorial island, Rossello supports a state of Puerto Rico.

In May 2006, a political stalemate has led to a fiscal crisis for two weeks prior to the partial shutdown of government, including all public schools. More than 100,000 workers without pay.