own bicameral legislature, currently consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives, since 1900. Puerto Rico has been represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by an elected resident commissioner since 1917 (see parenthetical statement on page 7-14 in the “American Samoa” section). Spanish is the language commonly spoken in Puerto Rico.
In 1950, Public Law 81-600 provided for the organization of a constitutional government by the people of Puerto Rico that would become effective upon approval by the U.S. Congress. This process culminated in commonwealth status on July 25, 1952. On November 14, 1993, Puerto Ricans favored retaining commonwealth status over statehood, 48 to 46 percent; 73 percent of those eligible to vote participated. This was the best showing for statehood in the several elections held to date, and statehood supporters promise to keep raising the issue until it wins. Meanwhile, despite their poor showing in the elections, those seeking a more autonomous Puerto Rico have not given up on achieving complete independence or creating a freely associated entity—the relationship that the United States now has with the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. Regardless of local wishes, any change in the status of Puerto Rico will have to obtain the approval of the Congress and the President of the United States.
Under Spanish rule, ten censuses were taken at irregular intervals from 1765 to 1897. The U.S. War Department took a special census of Puerto Rico in 1899, and Puerto Rico has been included in every decennial, economic, and agriculture census of the United States since 1910. Beginning with the 1960 census, the various censuses of Puerto Rico have been conducted by the Census Bureau in close cooperation with the Puerto Rico Planning Board.
In addition to the Commonwealth government, each of the 78 municipios is a functioning governmental unit that has its own elected mayor and municipio assembly. The municipio governments are the only general-purpose local governments in Puerto Rico. The Census Bureau treats the municipios as the statistical equivalents of counties (see Table 7-4). The boundaries of
