What is Puerto Rico?

Puerto Rico is a United States territory in the eastern Caribbean Sea, an archipelago consisting of the main island of Puerto Rico and several smaller islands including Vieques, Culebra, and Mona, with a total area of about 5,325 square miles and a population of about 3.2 million. The capital and largest city is San Juan, founded by Spanish colonists in 1521 and one of the oldest European-founded cities in the Americas.

Puerto Rico became a U.S. possession through the Treaty of Paris signed December 10, 1898 ending the Spanish-American War, when Spain ceded the island to the United States after about four centuries of Spanish rule that began with Christopher Columbus's second voyage in 1493. The Foraker Act of April 12, 1900 established a civil government with limited self-rule, and the Jones-Shafroth Act of March 2, 1917 granted U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans (with limited rights, since they cannot vote in presidential elections from the island and have only a non-voting resident commissioner in the U.S. House of Representatives).

The Public Law 600 of July 3, 1950 authorized Puerto Rico to draft its own constitution, which took effect on July 25, 1952 establishing the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Estado Libre Asociado, literally Free Associated State). Puerto Rico has held several status referenda asking voters to choose among continued commonwealth, statehood, or independence. Recent referenda in 2012, 2017, and 2020 have produced narrow majorities for statehood among those voting, but turnout has been mixed and Congress has not acted on statehood.

Puerto Ricans serve in the U.S. military and have been included in every American war since World War I, with about 65 Puerto Ricans receiving the Medal of Honor. About 5.8 million Puerto Ricans live in the mainland United States, more than the 3.2 million on the island.

Puerto Rico has experienced economic difficulties for decades, including the loss of preferential tax treatment for U.S. corporations operating there in 2006, severe public debt that triggered the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) of June 30, 2016, and devastating damage from Hurricane Maria on September 20, 2017 that killed about 3,000 people and caused widespread power and infrastructure failures.

The island's geography includes mountains in the interior (with Cerro de Punta the highest peak at 4,389 feet), the Caribbean National Forest (El Yunque) the only tropical rainforest in the U.S. National Forest System, and beaches on the Caribbean Sea (south) and Atlantic Ocean (north). Puerto Rican culture combines Spanish, Taíno (indigenous), and African elements visible in language (Spanish is the dominant language), music (salsa, plena, bomba, reggaeton), and food (mofongo, arroz con gandules, pernil).