About Puerto Rico

The island of Puerto Rico (est. pop. 3,917,000), is about 1,000 miles southeast of Florida and just east of the Dominican Republic and west of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The island is approximately 90 miles wide in an east-west direction and 30 miles wide between the north and south coasts.

 

Officially known as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (a self-governing entity in association with the United States), it includes the offshore islands of Mona, Vieques, and Culebra. The capital and largest city is San Juan. Puerto Rico has a mountainous, tropical ecosystem with very little flat land and few mineral resources. The coasts of tropical Puerto Rico are flat but most of the interior is mountainous. The tallest mountain is in the center of the island, Cerro de Punta, which is 4,389 feet high. About eight percent of the land is arable for agriculture.

 

Puerto Rico's governor is elected directly for a four-year term. A bicameral legislature consists of a 27-member Senate and a 51-member House of Representatives, all elected for four-year terms. Under the Commonwealth formula, residents of Puerto Rico lack voting representation in Congress and do not participate in presidential elections. As U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans are subject to military service and most federal laws. Residents of the Commonwealth pay no federal income tax on locally generated earnings, but Puerto Rican government income-tax rates are set at a level that closely parallels federal-plus-state levies on the mainland.

 

For more information, visit Bienvenidos, the official visitors magazine of The Puerto Rico Hotel & Tourism Association.