Median household income in Puerto Rico reached $21,058 in 2020, according to the latest 5-year estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. This means that in 2020, half of Puerto Rican households earned more than $21,058 a year while the other half earned less than that. When compared to 2015 median household income increased by 8.8%. Meaning that on a percentage basis, median household income increased faster in the last 5 years (2015 – 2020) than in the previous 5 – year period (2010-2015), when median household income increased by 3.3% to reach 19,350 in 2015. When compared to 2010 median household income has increased by 12.1%
However, the increase in median household income that Puerto Rico experienced between 2015 and 2020 was significantly slower than U.S. average. Between 2015 and 2020 median household income in the U.S. increased by 25.2%, around two times faster than in Puerto Rico. This lag in income growth compared to the U.S. average could be attributed to the several challenges the Puerto Rican economy faced in the period. These include the ongoing fiscal crisis, hurricanes Irma and María, the January 2020 earthquakes and the COVID-19 pandemic.
