Stateside Puerto Ricans or Puerto Rican Americans (Spanish: Puertorriqueño estadounidense) are American citizens born in Puerto Rico, or in one of the states of the United States, to parents of Puerto Rican origin, and who have notably lived a significant part of their lives in one of the states of the United States or the District of Columbia. Since 1898, Puerto Rico has been an unincorporated territory of the United States and is officially named the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico since 1952, when its constitution was adopted. The residents of the islands were given U.S. citizenship in 1917 through the Jones-Shafroth Act. Most Puerto Ricans descend from a combination of White Europeans (especially Spanish), the indigenous Taino peoples, and Africans, with later smaller waves of immigrants from Latin America, a small number of Asians (mostly Chinese), and non-Hispanic people from the United States. At 9% of the Latino population in the United States, Puerto Ricans are the second largest Hispanic group nationwide, and comprise 1.5% of the entire population of the United States.[1] Although, the 2010 Census puts the number of Puerto Ricans living in the United States at 4.6 million, recent estimates show the Puerto Rican population is now over 5 million, as of 2012.[2][3] Despite new demographic trends, New York City continues to be home to the largest Puerto Rican community in the United States, with Philadelphia having the second largest Puerto Rican community. The portmanteau "Nuyorican" refers to Puerto Ricans and their descendants in and around New York. A large portion of the Puerto Rican population in the United States reside in the Northeastern states and Florida, though there are significant Puerto Rican populations in the Chicago metropolitan area and other areas in Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Texas, and California, among others.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 00:04:08 +0000