Puerto Ricans in New York City

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Puerto Ricans have both immigrated and migrated to New York City. The first group of Puerto Ricans immigrated to New York City in the mid-19th century when Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony and its people Spanish subjects. The following wave of Puerto Ricans to move to New York City did so after the Spanish–American War in 1898.^[1] Puerto Ricans were no longer Spanish subjects and citizens of Spain, they were now Puerto Rican citizens of an American possession and needed passports to travel to the Contiguous United States.

That was until 1917, when the United States Congress approved Jones–Shafroth Act which gave Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico U.S. citizenship with certain limitations. Puerto Ricans living in the mainland United States however, were given full American citizenship and were allowed to seek political office in the states in which they resided. Two months later, when Congress passed the Selective Service Act, conscription was extended to the Puerto Ricans both on the island and on the mainland. It was expected that Puerto Rican men 18 years and older serve in the U.S. military^[2] during World War I.^[1] The Jones–Shafroth Act also allowed Puerto Ricans to travel between Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland without the need of a passport, thereby becoming migrants. The advent of air travel was one of the principal factors that led to the largest wave of migration of Puerto Ricans to New York City in the 1950s, known as "The Great Migration."

In New York City and other northeast cities such as Philadelphia and Boston, Puerto Ricans were the first Hispanic group to come in large numbers as early as the 1940s, being seen as the "Pioneer" group among the Hispanic community in these cities. From 1970 until about 1990, the city's Puerto Rican population was at its height. They represented up to 80% of the city's Hispanic community and 12% of the city's total population. At that time, nearly 70% of Puerto Ricans in the mainland United States lived in New York City. It wasn't until the 1990s that the percentage of Puerto Ricans that made up the city's Hispanic community and the population as a whole started to decrease, largely due to a declining Puerto Rican population, increasingly diversifying Hispanic community, and New York City's economy rebounding after deindustrialization, which ultimately resulted in a faster growing city population and dwindling Puerto Rican influence. While estimates suggested that in the early 2010s, New York's Puerto Rican population started to grow again in the midst of another major migration wave out of Puerto Rico, the 2020 Census established that the overall Puerto Rican population in the city declined over the past decade.^[3][4]

According to the 2010 Census, Puerto Ricans represent 8.9 percent of New York City alone (32% of the city's Hispanic community), and 5.5% of New York State as a whole.^[5] The Puerto Rican share of New York City has since decreased to 6.7% in 2020 as Puerto Ricans have left the city and new arrivals from the island increasingly seek out other areas.^[4][6] Of over a million Puerto Ricans in the state, about 70% are present in the city, with the remaining portion scattered in the city's suburbs and other major cities throughout New York State. Although Florida has received some dispersal of the population, the late 2000s and early 2010s saw a resurgence in Puerto Rican migration to New York and New Jersey, primarily for economic and cultural considerations,^[7][8] topped by another surge of arrivals after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in September 2017 – consequently, the New York City Metropolitan Area witnessed a significant increase in its Nuyorican population, individuals in the region of Puerto Rican descent, from 1,177,430 in 2010 to a Census-estimated 1,494,670 in 2016,^[3] followed by a decline to 1,072,950 in 2022.^[9] Despite recent losses, New York continues to maintain its status by a significant margin as the most important cultural and demographic center for Puerto Ricans outside San Juan.