Project: The Puerto Rico Public Opinion Lab (PR-POL)

The Puerto Rico Public Opinion Lab | Laboratorio Puertorriqueño de Opinión Pública

Amplifying the Voice and Representation of Puerto Rico

The Puerto Rico Public Opinion Lab (PR-POL) is a project that aims to amplify the voice and political representation of people living in Puerto Rico. Specifically, we are designing and administering the first panel survey of a large, representative sample of Puerto Ricans living on the island. Using this survey infrastructure, we will regularly collect, analyze and disseminate information on Puerto Rican experiences and attitudes toward a range of policies. In doing so, we will accomplish two goals. We will help build the local research infrastructure that equips Puerto Rican students and faculty with tools that will help to hold local and federal government bodies accountable. Equally notable, we will provide the public and policymakers alike with high quality data on the experiences, perspectives and desires of people in Puerto Rico to ensure that their voices are no longer dismissed or ignored.

The development of this infrastructure at UPR will be instrumental to fostering new research on and knowledge about public attitudes, preferences, and priorities among the island’s population at a critical juncture in its political and economic history. The lack of representative data on Puerto Rican public opinion has long inhibited scholarship on the development and future of Puerto Rican institutions. The provision of high-quality public opinion data would help ensure that the voices of island residents– individuals without a voice in the governing institutions that serve as the ultimate authority in their political lives– are heard.

Building on the success of the first phase of this project, our next goals are to administer the first two waves of our representative survey of Puerto Rican public opinion, including funding to support the infrastructure at UPR needed to manage the survey administration and data collection processes, solicit public feedback on the questionnaire, and provide other institutions and scholars with opportunities to support and engage with the project.