Baruch Professor Viviana Rivera-Burgos Co-Leads Inaugural Puerto Rico Public Opinion Survey Revealing Rifts in Political and Social Attitudes

Baruch Professor Viviana Rivera-Burgos Co-Leads Inaugural Puerto Rico Public Opinion Survey Revealing Rifts in Political and Social Attitudes

September 23, 2026

In a major contribution to Caribbean political science research, Viviana Rivera Burgos, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, has co-led the publication of a new brief detailing the inaugural survey findings of the Laboratorio Puertorriqueño de Opinión Pública (LabPOP). The results evoke an atmosphere of widespread distrust in local governance and a fracturing political system.

LabPOP is a strategic partnership between the University of Puerto Rico and the University of Michigan. Professor Rivera-Burgos serves as a co-investigator alongside lead investigator Michigan Professor Mara Cecilia Ostfeld and a cross-campus team of experts. The laboratory aims to provide a reliable and timely source of public opinion data on Puerto Rican residents using innovative statistical methods to collect and distil insights that best represent the population.

Examining Political Views in Puerto Rico

A newly released brief of the study's findings convincingly illuminates how Puerto Ricans view governance structures, their perception of democratic constraints, and their own political autonomy. To arrive at these representative beliefs, LabPOP conducted surveys of 1,266 adult residents of Puerto Rico between April 26, 2025, and November 23, 2025.

Noteworthy is the striking share of residents who do not hold clear preferences on the future of Puerto Rico's political relationship with the United States. Data from the survey again reveals a splintered electorate: 32 percent support statehood, 35 percent the current territorial status, and 18 percent are for the territory's independence.

The report also demonstrates the complexity of measuring racial identity in the region, noting that reported identity is highly susceptible to survey design effects. "We randomly assigned half our respondents a question using common Puerto Rican racial terminology and half the 2020 Census categories, producing two different portraits of the same island," Rivera-Burgos said.

"When asked in their own vocabulary, 29 percent of Puerto Ricans identified as white; using the Census categories, that percentage jumps to 43 percent. The most common self-identification was "trigueño" (39 percent), a category absent from the Census form. Meanwhile, the share identifying as Black doubled, from 11 percent to 23 percent. These findings should give pause to anyone using Census race data to inform decisions about Puerto Rico."

Research Supported Across the CUNY Community

Professor Rivera-Burgos's research and the fielding of this inaugural survey were heavily supported by Baruch College and the broader CUNY community. Funding and institutional support were provided by PSC-CUNY, CUNY's Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies Initiative, The Eugene M. Lang Junior Faculty Research Fellowship, The Office of the Provost, and The Weissman School of Arts and Sciences Dean's research funds.

* This copy originally appeared in The Weissman Newsletter. Visit the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences to read about its undergraduate and graduate academic programs.