Census Geography in Puerto Rico. A Technical Addendum for the 1990 Census

Innovations and policy changes initiated by the U.S. Census Bureau for the 1990 Decennial of Population and Housing in Puerto Rico will lead to the most accurate, comprehensive and comprehensible set of statistics on the Island's population and housing stock ever gathered. The use of automation, particularly the geographic/cartographic function, and Island-wide block numbering will supply data users with a several-fold increase in small area data and a greatly expanded capacity to manipulate and present this data. Critical to the effective utilization and appreciation of census statistics and the 1990 digital cartographic data base called TIGER is an understanding of census geography. This paper aims to clarify the unique aspects of Puerto Rico's census geography and to identify changes in terminology as well as content for the 1990 Census. The innovations and improvements in census mapping, combined with the simplification of geographic terms in Puerto Rico will make census data more accessible, meaningful and useful to 1990 Census data users.