The birth gap is the drain. Raise the rate or keep shrinking.

Deaths outnumber births by the thousands every year, and no policy that ignores the cradle can hold Puerto Rico's population.

Valeria Soto Marrero

Columnist, La Isla Que Viene

Share on X

Stands on 13 placed sources from 3 publishers.

The birth rate must rise or the island keeps shrinking. As this column has argued, the empty desks trace the birth curve. Now the 2025 census confirms the cost: deaths outnumber births, and the gap is the engine of our decline. ^[3]