Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico
Official languages Capital	San Juan
Area Government	9,104 km2 Unincorporated territory of the United States
Population Religion	3 706 690 Catholic 56% Protestants 33% Unaffiliated 8% Others 2&
Time zone Currency	UTC -4 United States dollar
Demonym	Puerto Rican Boricua
Preceded by Succeeded by

Puerto Rico (officially Commonwealth of Puerto Rico) (Spanish: Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico), is a United States territory in the Caribbean. The archipelago of Puerto Rico includes the principal island of Puerto Rico, the smaller of the Greater Antilles. It is an island with tropical weather and despite its area, has diversity of ecosystems: dry and rain forests, mountainous areas and marine ecosystems.

Since 1917, Puerto Ricans are American citizens, and they cannot vote in the American presidential elections, unless they have official residence in one of the fifty states or in the District of Columbia.

Language

Puerto Rico flag with the United States flag in the Fort San Felipe

Puerto Rico is a Spanish-speaking island de facto (in fact). Legally it is bilingual, meaning that both the Spanish and English are official languages, Spanish being the language spoken by the majority of the population.

Spanish

The Spanish language in Puerto Rico has peculiarities that distinguish it from other Spanish-speaking countries as in all regions. This is mainly due to the influence of the Canary, Corsican and Catalan to the island during the colonial era and languages of the Tainos and African immigrants. More recently, the English language is felt from the influence derived from the almost exclusive trade with the United States and the large number of Puerto Ricans living on US soil. A strong influence of English is detected in the population and its linguistic culture.

English

English is taught as a second language, although it has been estimated that only 10 to 20 percent of the residents of the island speak English "very well".

Municipalities

Map of Puerto Rico with its municipalities

Puerto Rico is divided administratively in 68 municipalities; everyone chooses a mayor and a Municipal legislature for 4 years. The principal cities are: San Juan (capital city), Bayamón, Carolina Ponce and Arecibo, all of them with more than 75 000 inhabitants. Puerto Rico has 2 islands municipalities, Vieques and Culebra, located at the east of the largest island.

To view a list of Puerto Rico municipalities, go to Wikipedia.

Transportation

Tren Urbano in Bayamón

There are more than 20 airports in the island, three of them with international flights: Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, Mercedita Airport, and the Rafael Hernández Airport. The San Juan metro, Tren Urbano (Urban Train), travels some of the principal points of the Metropolitan Area of the capital. The Metropolitan Bus Authority (AMA) operates buses in the metropolitan area including San Juan, Carolina, Guaynabo and Bayamon.

Time zone

Puerto Rico uses the Atlantic Standard Time all the year (UTC-04:00). DST is not used in the archipelago because there is not much difference between the sunsets and sunrises throughout the year.

Links

• Puerto Rican government official website (Spanish)

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