Healthcare in Puerto Rico

Healthcare in Puerto Rico is rather above average in a worldwide comparison.

Probably the most important indicator that can be used to summarize the efficiency of all measures is general life expectancy. In other words, the theoretical age that a newborn child could potentially reach today. At the moment this age in Puerto Rico is 76.5 years for men and 83.5 years for women. For comparison: worldwide life expectancy is about 7.2 years lower (men: 70.6 / women: 75.0 years).

Back to overview: Puerto Rico

Distribution of the corona virus

Spread of the corona virus in Puerto Rico

Currently: 3.6 new infections per day per 100,000 inhabitants
By October 18th, 2021, 292594 infected persons and 3209 deaths have been reported in the country. The first confirmed infections were reported in March 2020, which is the date of the official notification. An additional 10-14 days are calculated for noticing one's own infection, the doctor's appointment, the laboratory test and, above all, the period from the infection until the first symptoms appear.

The total of 292,594 infected people represent 9.2% of the country's total population. The number of new infections during the 41st calendar week (10/11/2021 to 10/17/2021) was 816 , representing 3.6 cases per 100,000 inhabitants per day.

The first graph shows the number of reported infections per calendar week. The second graph below the number of deaths.

Mortality rate of infected persons

From the previously infected and deceased people, in Puerto Rico results in a mortality rate of 1.1%. However, it should be borne in mind that death occurs an average of 19 days after the first symptoms appear. The time of the actual infection is therefore followed by several days until a person affected has a medical test carried out and the results are available.

Due to the current corona pandemic, we update the worldwide case numbers weekly. A list of all infected and dead people by country can be found on our Corona virus topic page.

Current development

Calendar week	Infected	Deaths
41/2021	816	16
40/2021	888	21
39/2021	1,046	31
38/2021	1,519	49
37/2021	2,097	64
36/2021	2,687	100
35/2021	3,996	68
34/2021	5,465	102
33/2021	5,800	80
32/2021	6,348	58

Weight and size

	Male	Female
Body height	179 cm	163 cm
BMI	28.4	28.6
Weight	90.7 kg	76.0 kg

Diseases

	Puerto Rico	Ø worldwide
Diabetes *	13.70%	8.81%
Tuberculosis	0.00%	0.13%

* The number of people suffering from diabetes refers only to inhabitants aged between 20 and 79 years.

Medical supplies

The medical care provided by doctors and hospitals in Puerto Rico is above average, but is not as good as the average within the EU. The country provides 3.3 hospital beds per 1000 inhabitants. The global mean here is 2.7 beds. Within the EU, 5.6 beds are available for every 1,000 residents.

With about 5,590 physicians in Puerto Rico, there are about 1.75 doctors per 1000 inhabitants. Here again the comparison: worldwide this standard is 1.50 physicians per 1000 inhabitants and in the EU even 3.57.

Supply with drinking water

As one of the few countries, Puerto Rico offers almost its entire population (99.86 percent) access to an immediately available, running drinking water connection. The proportion of the population that is reached by additional supply from springs and wells or supplied drinking water is 100%. In a global comparison, only about 74% of the population has direct access to tested and always available drinking water. Within the European Union, this share is 98%. Only in a few countries does the proportion fall below 10%.

Sources

Above data correspond to the information of the World Health Organization, Global Health Workforce Statistics, UNICEF, State of the World's Children, Childinfo, Global Health Observatory Data Repository and OECD. The case numbers for the spread of the corona virus come from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).