Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean Sea.

It has mountains, beaches and big cities. Most people speak Spanish.

Puerto Rico is the easternmost island of the Greater Antilles. It lies about 80 kilometers east of the Dominican Republic and about 1,600 kilometers southeast of Florida, with the Atlantic Ocean on its north shore and the Caribbean Sea to the south. The smaller islands of Vieques, Culebra and Mona are part of it too.

It is a commonwealth associated with the United States, and the money is the US dollar. Spanish and English are both official languages. The capital is San Juan. The Census Bureau estimated 3,184,835 people in 2025. The photo shows a street of colorful houses in Old San Juan.

The main island is roughly rectangular, up to 179 km east to west and 63 km north to south, about 80 km east of the Dominican Republic and 65 km west of the Virgin Islands; Vieques, Culebra and Mona are part of Puerto Rico. Its official name is Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico in Spanish and Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in English.

The 2020 census counted 3,285,874 people, 11.8 percent fewer than in 2010, but a later Census Bureau survey found the count had overstated the population by about 5.7 percent. The bureau's Vintage 2025 estimate for July 1, 2025 is 3,184,835. The photo shows colorful houses with balconies on a cobblestone street in Old San Juan.

San Juan is the capital city. Big old stone forts guard its bay.

Some of the forts are more than 400 years old.

San Juan, on the north coast, is the capital and has a large, well-protected bay. In the 1500s Spain built La Fortaleza, a fortified palace for the governor, and then the huge castle of San Felipe del Morro, called El Morro, to guard the narrow entrance to the harbor. Later came the larger fortress of San Cristóbal and a thick stone city wall, parts of which still stand.

UNESCO lists La Fortaleza and the San Juan National Historic Site as a World Heritage site. Ponce is a city on the south coast.

Juan Ponce de León founded Caparra beside the bay in 1508; by 1521 the town moved to an islet at the harbor's north end and was named Puerto Rico ('Rich Port'), a name that later passed to the whole island while the city became San Juan. Using a subsidy from Mexican mines, Spain built La Fortaleza, then El Morro to command the harbor entrance, then San Cristóbal on the Atlantic side; in the early 17th century a wall 8 m high and 5 m thick enclosed the city, and two parts survive.

UNESCO inscribed La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site in 1983 as defenses built between the 16th and 20th centuries, a fine display of European military architecture adapted to harbors in the Americas. Most people live on the narrow lowland along the north coast.

Puerto Rico has green mountains in the middle.

In the northeast there is a rain forest called El Yunque.

Mountains and hills cover most of Puerto Rico. The Cordillera Central runs east to west, and its highest peak, Cerro de Punta, reaches 1,338 meters. In the northwest the land has sinkholes, caves and round haystack hills called mogotes.

El Yunque National Forest, in the northeast, is the only tropical rain forest in the US national forest system. It rains far more on the north side of the island than the south: San Juan gets about 1,525 millimeters a year and Ponce, on the south coast, only about 914. Hurricanes can come between June and November.

Nearly a quarter of the island is steep slopes. The Cordillera Central exceeds 900 m in many places and peaks at Cerro de Punta (1,338 m); the Sierra de Luquillo rises to 1,065 m at El Yunque Peak. Northwestern karst has sinkholes, caverns and mogotes. Less than 160 km north lies the Puerto Rico Trench, more than 8 km deep, the Atlantic's deepest point; tectonic forces still occasionally cause earthquakes on the island.

Northeast trade winds bring rain to the north while the south lies in a rain shadow: about 1,525 mm a year at San Juan, 4,570 mm at El Yunque Peak and 914 mm at Ponce. El Yunque National Forest, nearly 29,000 acres across eight municipalities, is the only tropical rainforest in the US national forest system.

A tiny frog called the coquí sings "co-kee!"

Its song sounds like its name. A small green parrot lives in the forest.

The coquí is a small frog whose name sounds like its call, "co-kee!" It has become a kind of national mascot. The rain forest in the Sierra de Luquillo protects rare orchids and the small green Puerto Rican parrot, which is endangered.

Puerto Rico has more than 200 kinds of birds. Most land animals are small: nonpoisonous snakes, lizards and mongooses. Bright flowering trees such as the royal poinciana and the African tulip tree add patches of red and orange to the green mountains.

The coquí (genus Eleutherodactylus), named for its call, has become a national mascot. The forest of the Sierra de Luquillo preserves rare orchids and the endangered Puerto Rican parrot. More than 200 bird species are recorded, while land animals are mostly nonpoisonous snakes, lizards, mongooses and frogs.

Most of the original vegetation was cleared over centuries of farming, especially in the early 20th century, when coastal forests were cut for railroad ties and fuel; some woodlands have been replanted, but introduced trees, shrubs and grasses now dominate. Rain forest covers parts of the north and thorn and scrub the drier south.

Most people speak Spanish. English is an official language too.

Most people live in towns and cities along the north coast.

Puerto Rican culture blends Spanish, US and Afro-Caribbean influences. Spanish and English are both official languages. Most people live on the narrow lowland along the north coast, and smaller crowded areas line the south and west coasts.

In Spanish colonial times, country people called jíbaros farmed their own small plots in the hills. The population has been getting smaller: the census counted 3,725,789 people in 2010 and 3,285,874 in 2020.

Puerto Ricans share an intermingled Spanish, US and Afro-Caribbean culture, and Spanish and English are both official. Most people live on the continuous narrow lowland of the north coast, with smaller, densely populated bands along the south and west; the Caguas Basin south of San Juan is the largest of the mountain basins with level land for towns and farms.

In colonial times San Juan received Spain's attention, while the rural jíbaros, largely ignored, worked their own small landholdings and traded ginger, hides, sugarcane, tobacco and cattle with non-Spanish merchants despite Spain's rules. The census counted 3,725,789 people in 2010 and 3,285,874 in 2020, a fall of 11.8 percent.