Project Documentation

by Luis Millet and Gian F. Villafañe

Project Title: Migration Patterns of Puerto Ricans to the United States

Introduction:

This project aims to investigate how various phenomena and events in Puerto Rico have influenced the migration patterns of Puerto Ricans to the United States. By analyzing census data from Puerto Rico and the United States from 2015 to 2022, we seek to understand the demographic trends and factors driving migration between these two regions.

Hypotheses:

1. Demographic Trend Hypothesis: The majority of individuals migrating from Puerto Rico to the United States during the period from 2015 to 2022 are younger than 30 years old, driven by variations in job availability, wages, and quality of life. This hypothesis suggests that younger individuals, particularly those under 30, are more likely to migrate due to factors such as education opportunities, career advancement, or economic challenges.
2. Policy Influence Hypothesis: Changes in federal policies and governance, including the implementation of PROMESA in 2016, influenced migration patterns from Puerto Rico to the United States. Political and policy changes, such as the establishment of the federal oversight board under PROMESA, are expected to have affected migration decisions among Puerto Ricans, either by encouraging or discouraging migration.
3. Natural Disaster Impact Hypothesis: Natural disasters such as Hurricane Maria in 2017 resulted in a significant temporary surge in migration from Puerto Rico to the United States. This hypothesis suggests that the impact of natural disasters on Puerto Rico led to a temporary increase in migration to the United States as individuals sought refuge and opportunities elsewhere.

Data Sources:

1. The World Bank: The data from The World Bank on "Net migration" for Puerto Rico provides information on the net migration rate in Puerto Rico over a certain period. Net migration refers to the difference between the number of immigrants (people moving into Puerto Rico) and emigrants (people leaving Puerto Rico) per 1,000 population.

   • CSV: Link
   • Excel: Link

2. United States Census Bureau: The data from the United States Census Bureau includes demographic information from the American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates Subject Tables for the years 2015 to 2022.

   • 2015-2020: Link
   • 2021: Link
   • 2022: Link

Data Wrangling, Cleaning & Manipulation

To clean and filter The World Bank data on "Net migration" for Puerto Rico, we specifically:

• Extracted the relevant information related to our research question and hypotheses.
• Filtered the data to include only information concerning Puerto Rico.
• Visualized the data to identify the availability of years between 2015 and 2022.
• Renamed the columns to their respective years.
• Dropped the unnecessary data.
• Merged this cleaned dataset with the census data.

References:

• U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). AGE AND SEX. American Community Survey, ACS 5-Year Estimates Subject Tables, Table S0101, 2015-2022. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from Link
• World Bank. (n.d.). Net migration - Puerto Rico [Data file]. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from Link