According to Countryaah website, approximately 3.2 million people live in Puerto Rico.
Ethnic Composition
Most Puerto Ricans have African ancestry. Nevertheless, around 80.5% are white (predominantly of Spanish origin), 8% are black, 0.4% Indians and 0.2% Asians.
Religious
affiliation About 85% of the country’s residents are Catholic, another 15% are Protestants or belong to other denominations.
National language
About 93% of the population speak Spanish as their first language, the remaining 7% English. At universities, teaching is almost entirely in English.
Capital, other cities
The capital of Puerto Rico is San Juan with around 500,000 residents.
Other cities are:
Ponce with around 150,000 residents,
Mayagüez with around 100,000 residents.
Puerto Rico: geography
Puerto Rico, the main island, is the easternmost and smallest island of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean. The state also includes the islands of Vieques, Culebra, Culebrita, Palomino, Mona and Monito, Desecheo and Caja de Muertos, all of which are part of the Lesser Antilles. Only Vieques and Culebra are inhabited all year round. Check topmbadirectory for politics, flags, famous people, animals and plants of Puerto Rico.
Except for the wide coastal plains, Puerto Rico is predominantly characterized by mountainous landscapes.
The Puerto Rico Trench runs along the north coast of Puerto Rico in the Atlantic. It forms the northern part of the interface between the North American and South American plates. The Milwaukee Deep, 9,219 m below sea level, which is the deepest point in the Atlantic, is also located in this deep-sea channel. The ocean is also very deep to the south of the island, where the “Venezuelan Basin” of the Caribbean is up to 5,649 m deep.
Islands of Puerto Rico
The island state essentially consists of the following islands:
Puerto Rico with an area of 8,870 km²,
Vieques with an area of 135 km²,
Culebra with an area of 28 km²,
Culebrita with 22 other tiny and uninhabited islets,
Mona with an area of 57 km²,
Monito with an area of 0.15 km²,
Desecheo with an area of 1.5 km²,
Palomino and
Caja de Muertos.
Area and national borders
The island nation of Puerto Rico covers a total area of 8,959 km ².
Thereof:
ForestAround two thirds of the country is forested.
Arable land and fieldsAround 9.5% of the land is used as arable land or fields, especially for growing sugar cane, bananas, coffee, pineapple, ginger and tobacco.
MountainsAround 60% of the island’s surface is covered by mountains.
Land borders
The state lies in the Atlantic and the Caribbean and therefore has no “land borders” with other countries
Coastline
Puerto Rico has a coast to the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean with a total length of around 1,125 km. The length of the coast of the main island Puerto Rico alone is about 500 km.
Tidal range
In Chimbote the mean tidal range is around 1.5 m.
For detailed explanations of ebb and flow, see Tides, Ebb and Flow.
Compare
The world’s highest tidal range can be found in the Bay of Fundy in Canada, where it is up to 16 meters, and at spring tide even over 20 meters. The Bay of Fundy is located on the Atlantic between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which is called Nova Scotia in German and whose capital is Halifax.
On the German North Sea coast it varies between one and three meters. In the western Baltic Sea, on the other hand, the tidal range is only 0.3 meters, while it is barely noticeable in the eastern Baltic Sea.
Longitude and latitude
Puerto Rico extends over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):
Δφ = from 17 ° 55 ‘to 18 ° 30’ north latitude Δλ = from 64 ° 05 ‘to 67 ° 55’ west longitude
You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and Latitude.
Legal time
For Puerto Rico, the following value applies to Central European Time (CET), i.e. the time without summer time. A minus sign means that it is earlier there, a plus sign that it is later than CET:
Δt (CET) = – 5 h
Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones, time.
The highest point of the sun in San Juan
San Juan lies at a north latitude of around 18 °. If the declination of the sun has the value of 18 ° N, and thus the image point of the sun is exactly above the city or island, the sun is perpendicular there. This happens exactly twice a year, roughly 3 weeks before June 21st and then again 3 weeks after June 21st. (For details see position of the sun).
Attention
If the image point of the sun and thus the declination is north of the latitude of San Juan, the sun is not in the south at noon, as in our latitudes, but in the north. In this case, the sun moves from east to north to west, where, like us, it sets.
Mountains
Cerro La Punta
The highest mountain in Puerto Rico is Cerro La Punta with a height of 1,338 m.
Los Tres Picachos
Another high mountain is Los Tres Picachos with a height of 1,080 m.
Rivers
There are over 50 rivers in Puerto Rico.
Rio de la Plata
The longest river in the country is the Rio de la Plata with a length of 97 km.
Rio Grande de Añasco
The Rio Grande de Añasco has a length of 64 km.
Lakes
There are no larger lakes in Puerto Rico – but there are some smaller mountain lakes.
Caribbean and Atlantic
Puerto Rico borders the Atlantic Ocean on its north side and the Caribbean on the south. In the west and east, the coast is at the transition between the Caribbean and the “actual” Atlantic. The surrounding sea has some very deep places, for example in the north in the Puerto Rico Trench at a distance of a little more than 130 km the 9,219 m deep Milwaukeetief (Atlantic) and in the south the 5,649 m deep Venezuelan Basin (Caribbean).
The Caribbean
The Caribbean is a marginal sea of the Atlantic and lies between the islands of the Caribbean and the American continent. In the west, Mexico and other Central American states border the Caribbean. In the south of Colombia and Venezuela. In the east and north, in addition to Puerto Rico – starting in a semicircle from Venezuela – the following islands or archipelagos form the border to the “actual” Atlantic: Trinidad and Tabago, Grenada, St. Lucia, Dominica, British Virgin Islands, Haiti and Cuba.
The deepest point in the Caribbean is the Cayman Rift between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands with a depth of 7,680 m. Together with the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean forms the “American Mediterranean”.
