Puerto Rico

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is an Unincorporated Territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea about 1,000 miles southeast of Florida. It is about three times the size of Rhode Island and covers an area of 13,790 sq. kilometers. Puerto Rico’s total population is about 3.67 million and shrinking at a rate of 0.47% with 99% living in urban areas. The capital San Juan has a population of about 433,000 million with other major cities including Bayamon (224,000) and Carolina (187,000). The people are governed by a commonwealth and are predominately Roman Catholic. The primary language used is Spanish, but English is an official language as well and is the second language taught in schools. The local currency used is the US dollar.

Although Puerto Rico is still a developing economy it has one of the strongest economies in the Caribbean region. Duty-free access and generally low tax rates with tax incentives have encouraged US companies to invest heavily in Puerto Rico and the tax benefits make it an attractive region for other foreign investment. Its main trade partner is the US with other major trade partners including UK, Netherlands, Dominican Republic, Ireland, and Japan. Its primary imports are chemicals, machinery and equipment, clothing, food, fish, and petroleum products. Exports consist of chemicals, electronics, apparel, rum, canned tuna, beverage concentrates, and medical equipment. Puerto Rico’s GDP (Purchasing Power Parity) is $64.84 billion and is growing at a real rate of 5.8% with an inflation rate of 1.3%. Puerto Rico ranked 41 out of 185 countries in the World Bank Group’s Ease of Doing Business Ranking.

Viva Global Expansion! Trade Mission to Latin America (2012)Click the links below for articles with more information on Franchising in Puerto Rico

Latin American Market Sizzles with U.S. Franchisors (2012)

Latin American Market Sizzles with U.S. Franchisors(2012)

Franchising Laws - Puerto Rico(2009)

The Future of Latin America(2007)

* CPI Score is published by Transparency International and relates to the perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts and ranges between 100 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).

**Ease of Doing Business Ranking is determined by the World Bank Group and is ranked out of a possible 185 countries. www.doingbusiness.org

Most recent statistics have been taken from the CIA World Factbook unless noted otherwise.