The data, issued by the United States Census Bureau, indicate that 25 percent of the Puerto Rican population has only $16.00 USD a day, in a country where the minimum wage is $ 7.25 USD an hour, as established by the United States.
Poverty in Puerto Rico, which remains under US colonial control since 1898, is extreme in the mountain communities, out of the sight of tourists that stay in magnificent places of the metropolitan areas of San Juan.
In 1952, Puerto Rico turned into a Free Associated State, something that grants some internal freedom to take actions and rules it out from the list of colonial countries of the United Nations, while the nation is on the downgrade and a worsened situation can be forecast.
The 2014 Census data indicate that the poverty rate, which for the last ten years was 45 percent, has risen to 46.2 percent, which represents an increase of 1.2 percent.
sgl/eav/lma/nrm
PL-52/MNA
Publish Date: 22 September 2015 - 13:17
SAN JUAN, Sep 22 (MNA)- Despite the colonial control of the United States, poverty currently affects 1.6 million people out of the 3.5 million inhabitants of Puerto Rico, 900,000 of whom are in abject poverty.