More than one month after Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico, help has been hard to come by. The federal government’s response has been nothing short of cruelty and complete negligence—despite Donald Trump’s insistence that the recovery efforts are a “10 out of 10.” Though private individuals and companies like Tesla have stepped in to help, as of Thursday, only 26 percent of households have power, and food and drinking water remain scarce.
It’s unknown how long it will take to rebuild and it’s likely that Puerto Rico will never be the same. One of the most challenging and heartbreaking aspects of this tragedy is that the population of the island is rapidly changing, and faces an uncertain future. Puerto Rico has a sizable population of seniors, many of whom are looking to rebuild, while young people seek opportunities elsewhere.
Even before the monster storm hit this island of 3.4 million, Puerto Rico was aging at a break-neck pace. A decade-long recession and 10 percent unemployment forced droves of young people to flee the island to seek work on the mainland.
According to a 2016 study published by the Puerto Rican government, 23.3 percent of the population is over 60 years old. That’s higher than any country in the Caribbean or Latin America, except for the U.S. Virgin Islands, a retirement hotspot.
This is a global phenomenon. Last year, a report from the Census Bureau stated that “for the first time in human history, people aged 65 and older will outnumber children under age 5.” This is troubling because, while the population of people who are older is growing, the population of people who are younger is not. According to the report, the population over age 65 will double in the next three decades, while the population under the age of 20 will see almost no growth. The lack of growth is associated with fertility rates, which are on the decline.
“Populations with high fertility tend to have a young age distribution with a high proportion of children and a low proportion of older people, while those with low fertility have the opposite, resulting in an older society.”
“In many countries today, the total fertility rate (TFR) has fallen below the 2.1 children that a couple needs to replace themselves,” says the report. “In 2015, the TFR is near or below replacement levels in all world regions except Africa.”
In Puerto Rico, young people are leaving the island en masse, which leaves seniors as residents who are clearly not having children to replace them. Not only will this result in the population of the island stagnating, but it also means that its aging population is left behind to become the population most at-risk by hurricanes like Maria. And it leaves them responsible for the clean-up, too.
Hunter College’s Center for Puerto Rican Studies estimates the island will lose a startling 14 percent of its population between 2017 and 2019. That’s 470,335 residents gone, most of them working-age adults. [...]
That means the island’s seniors will increasingly have to fend for themselves.
More than a month after Maria, many of Puerto Rico’s older residents remain physically and economically stranded, said Jose Acarón, the Puerto Rico director for AARP, formerly the the American Association of Retired Persons. [...]
This week, AARP began taking food to some 6,000-7,000 seniors who are stuck in 18 communities. But that program only has funding for about a month.
As people begin preparing to leave Puerto Rico to find safety, shelter, and economic opportunities on the mainland, what will happen to the island’s seniors? Affordable housing remains scarce in central Florida and New York, where a number of Puerto Ricans have family and are relocating. Additionally, while those seniors may be willing to temporarily move while the island is being rebuilt, they are not happy about being forced out of their homeland. "She's always said she wants to die in Puerto Rico," Elsie Mieles-Hidalgo says [of her mother, Ana Mieles] in Spanish. "When she comes here, she tells us nobody is going to take her off the island. And now the hurricane has forced her out. She has to leave." This crisis has multiple layers and, while every demographic on the island is impacted, it is the seniors who will pay the steepest price.