What the polls
actually say.
Puerto Rico statehood, Puerto Ricans living in the states, and U.S. public opinion. Read each result with its question, population, field dates, and source.
Poll and ballot archive
Explore 21 documented entries from 1962 onward. Filter by population, period, and evidence type; each record links to its source and the fuller explanation below. These studies and ballots asked different questions, rather than forming one statistical trend.
Support in a different question
Statehood among votes for the listed options
Statehood in a pre-election survey
A continuing window into Florida communities
Conditional on island residents voting yes
Support before new information
Congress granting statehood
Yes to statehood
Would support an offer of statehood
Would support an offer of statehood
Favor admission as a state
If residents wanted statehood
Statehood among participating voters
Statehood among answers to question two
Three-way status preference
“None of the above” placed first
Statehood; commonwealth led
If Puerto Ricans chose statehood
If an island majority voted for statehood
Statehood; commonwealth won
If an island majority voted for statehood
Ballots and surveys answer different questions.
An election is a count of participating voters; a survey estimates attitudes in a defined population. The 2024 status ballot did not include the territorial status quo.
Statehood among votes for the listed options
Puerto Rico’s State Elections Commission certified 620,782 votes for statehood. The certified percentage uses the votes cast for the three status choices; blank and invalid ballots require separate accounting. This was a nonbinding local status vote, not an act of Congress.
Read the CEE certification ↗Statehood in a pre-election survey
In a house-to-house survey of 1,000 registered adults, 44% selected statehood, 25% sovereign free association, and 19% independence. The reported margin of error was ±3 points. These are survey preferences, not the later certified ballot percentages.
Read the survey coverage ↗ · Methodology ↗The diaspora is not one national sample.
Florida and New York studies interviewed Puerto Rican voters in those states. Their results should not be generalized to every Puerto Rican living in the U.S.
Would support an offer of statehood
Of 600 likely Puerto Rican voters in Florida, 77% said yes when asked whether they would support statehood if Congress offered it; 15% said no and 9% did not know (rounding in the published topline). A differently worded question in the same poll reported 81% favor.
Survey citation and availability note ↓Would support an offer of statehood
Anzalone Liszt Grove Research interviewed 500 likely Puerto Rican voters in New York by landline and cellphone, with a 50-person oversample in one congressional district. The statewide result was 66% yes, 24% no, 9% unsure; statewide margin of error ±4.4 points.
Survey citation and availability note ↓A continuing window into Florida communities
UCF’s Puerto Rico Research Hub publishes reports on Puerto Ricans in Florida, including 2024 and post-election 2025 studies. Explore the questionnaires and sampling before comparing them with older likely-voter polls; the populations and topics may differ.
2024 reports ↗ · 2025 reports ↗Question wording changes the answer.
These surveys cover U.S. adults or voters generally, not Puerto Rican voters specifically. Their dates and formulations differ, so a simple line chart would suggest a trend the evidence cannot establish.
Conditional on island residents voting yes
Among 7,200 U.S. adults, 59% supported making Puerto Rico a state if its residents voted in favor; 16% opposed and 25% were unsure. The condition is part of the question and matters to interpretation.
View YouGov’s result ↗Support in a different question
Among 1,558 U.S. adult citizens, 45% supported and 28% opposed granting statehood. The overall sample’s approximate margin of error was ±3.5 points. This is not directly comparable to the conditional 2024 Daily Question.
Read results and methodology ↗Support before new information
The memo reports 59% support, 32% opposition, 9% unsure. After respondents were told about Puerto Rico’s 2020 nonbinding yes/no vote, support rose to 63%. The memo contains conflicting sample totals (1,025 in the introduction; 1,205 in its methodology), so consult it before citing its sample size.
Read the research memo ↗Favor admission as a state
Gallup reported 66% favor, 27% oppose, and 7% no opinion among U.S. adults. Its trend series goes back to 1962, but some historical questions used different conditions and should be read in context.
Read Gallup’s analysis ↗ · Question wording ↗Three-way status preference
Asked to choose one path, 30% of 1,009 U.S. adults chose statehood, 28% independence and 26% continued territorial/commonwealth status; 16% gave another answer or no opinion. Gallup reported a ±4-point sampling margin. This differs sharply from asking whether people would honor an island vote.
Gallup questionnaire and method ↗If Puerto Ricans chose statehood
Gallup reported 60% of U.S. adults favoring statehood if Puerto Ricans voted for it. In its 1977 three-way preference question, only 24% chose statehood. These are different question designs, not a measure of a sudden shift.
Gallup’s historical comparison ↗ · Trend wording ↗If residents wanted statehood
In YouGov’s survey of U.S. adults, 40% completely and 17% somewhat supported granting Puerto Rico statehood if its residents wanted it. Eighteen percent opposed; 20% did not know and 6% said they had not heard of the territory. The published weighted base for this item was 1,225. This conditional item differs from an unconditional preference question.
Original YouGov tables, p. 11 ↗Congress granting statehood
Among 1,992 registered U.S. voters, 21% strongly and 24% somewhat supported Congress granting statehood; 30% opposed and 26% were undecided or gave no opinion (published figures are rounded). This is a registered-voter sample and the question does not stipulate a prior island vote.
Original crosstabs, POL11 ↗If an island majority voted for statehood
Gallup’s published historical topline records 65% favor, 18% oppose and 17% no opinion when U.S. adults were asked whether to admit Puerto Rico if a majority there voted for statehood. The conditional wording is essential; the 2019 release reproduces the historical result, but does not provide a comparable 1962 sample description.
Gallup historical topline, p. 2 ↗If an island majority voted for statehood
The same published series lists 59% favor, 24% oppose and 16% no opinion under the condition that a majority of Puerto Ricans voted in favor (rounding yields 99%). This is a separate conditional question from Gallup’s 1977 three-way preference item, which asked respondents to choose a status.
Gallup historical topline, p. 2 ↗Seven status votes, seven distinct ballots.
This is an indexed history of Puerto Rico’s local status votes, not a single like-for-like trend. The choices, denominators, participation, and political circumstances changed. Follow the source beside each entry.
Statehood; commonwealth won
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) lists 273,315 votes for statehood (38.9%), 425,079 for commonwealth (60.5%), and 4,118 for independence (0.6%); turnout was about 66%.
CRS historical table ↗Statehood; commonwealth led
CRS lists 788,296 statehood votes (46.4%) and 826,326 commonwealth votes (48.6%), with 4.4% for independence. The ballot descriptions themselves remain part of the debate.
CRS table and notes ↗“None of the above” placed first
Statehood received 728,157 votes (46.6%), while “none of the above” received 787,900 (50.3%). A multi-option ballot with a protest choice cannot be treated as a yes/no statehood vote.
CRS table and ballot context ↗Statehood among answers to question two
About 61.2% of voters who answered the second question chose statehood (834,191 votes). CRS documents 498,604 blank answers to that question and the competing ways people have interpreted them. The first question separately addressed continuing the current territorial status.
CRS certified-results analysis ↗Statehood among participating voters
Statehood received roughly 97% of votes cast, while turnout was about 23% of registered voters amid an opposition boycott. The large share among participants must be read alongside participation.
CEE certification in House hearing ↗Yes to statehood
The amended final CEE certification records 655,505 yes votes, or 52.52% of votes for the yes/no choices. This ballot directly asked whether Puerto Rico should be admitted as a state.
Final amended CEE certification ↗2024 belongs in this history too. Its three-option certified result appears above, with blank and invalid ballots identified separately. The 1991 “democratic rights” referendum was a different constitutional question; CRS includes it in the historical record, but it was not a direct statehood preference ballot.
Why do the numbers differ?
A useful archive shows the denominator and the alternatives, not just the largest percentage. These pairs answer different questions:
44% in a survey; 58.61% on a ballot
The pre-election survey measured a sample of registered adults before voting. The certified plebiscite counted voters who selected one of three listed status choices. Participation, timing, and treatment of blank or invalid ballots differ. Neither number is a substitute for the other.
Survey method ↗ · Certified result ↗Conditional and direct questions
“If Puerto Ricans want it” in YouGov’s 2019 and 2024 questions is a condition. Morning Consult’s 2021 question asks registered voters about Congress granting statehood; the 2025 Economist/YouGov item asks U.S. citizens about support. Compare wording, sample and field period before describing a change over time.
2019 tables ↗ · 2021 tables ↗What is missing? There is no single, continuously repeated, identically worded poll spanning Puerto Rico, all Puerto Ricans in the states, and the U.S. public. Florida and New York studies cannot stand in for a national diaspora estimate. We welcome original questionnaires and methods for additional states and years.
Four checks before sharing a number.
01 · Who was asked?
Island registered voters, Puerto Rican voters in a particular state, all U.S. adults, and likely voters are distinct populations.
02 · What was asked?
Support for statehood, support if Congress offered it, and support after an island vote are not interchangeable questions.
03 · When and how?
Check field dates, sample size, collection mode, weighting, uncertainty, and who funded the study. A historical poll is a snapshot, not a current mandate.
04 · Poll or plebiscite?
A local ballot reports votes cast under its rules. A survey estimates opinion. Neither alone changes Puerto Rico’s federal political status; Congress must act.
Source library: Consult the linked CEE certifications, Congressional Research Service tables and analysis, Gallup questionnaires, university reports, and original survey toplines. NAPREC describes the question and denominator beside every figure.
Editorial note: Selected examples, reviewed October 2026. This page distinguishes NAPREC’s advocacy for statehood from what each source actually measured. Send corrections or original survey documents to info@naprec.org.
2019 diaspora surveys: source note
Research author: Anzalone Liszt Grove Research. Florida Puerto Rican likely-voter survey, March 12–20, 2019 (600 interviews); New York Puerto Rican likely-voter survey, May 6–9, 2019 (500 statewide interviews and a 50-person district oversample).
The historical figures above identify the research firm and field dates. A currently accessible copy hosted by the research firm has not been confirmed. Treat these as historical survey results, not a current estimate of all Puerto Ricans in the United States. Original questionnaires or corrections may be sent to info@naprec.org.