Short answers, pulled from the story.
Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States, organized under the designation of commonwealth. It is not a state because Congress has not passed legislation admitting it, despite a majority of Puerto Rican voters choosing statehood in the 2020 referendum and again in the November 2024 elections. The Puerto Rico Status Act passed the U.S. House in 2022 but did not pass the Senate.
Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917, when the Jones-Shafroth Act granted them citizenship collectively. They can move freely between Puerto Rico and the mainland United States. However, residents of Puerto Rico cannot vote in U.S. presidential elections and have no voting representative in Congress.
Puerto Rico's government-debt crisis grew from decades of structural budget deficits beginning as early as 1973, financed by issuing bonds rather than making spending adjustments. The expiration of IRS Section 936 corporate tax incentives accelerated the crisis, and by early 2017 outstanding bond debt had reached $70 billion. The 2016 PROMESA law established a federal oversight board to manage debt restructuring.
Category 4 Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in 2017, together with Category 5 Hurricane Irma, knocking out all power on the island, dropping cell service to 5% of normal, blocking 97% of roads with landslides, and causing damage estimated at $100 billion. More than 90% of the population applied for disaster assistance after the storms.
Spanish and English are both official languages of Puerto Rico's government, with Spanish declared the first official language and English the second in 2015. Spanish is the dominant language of daily life, spoken by nearly 95% of the population, while English is the primary language for fewer than 10% of residents. Puerto Rican Spanish incorporates significant Taíno and West African loanwords.
The Puerto Rico Trench is the largest and deepest oceanic trench in the Atlantic Ocean, located about 71 miles north of Puerto Rico at the boundary between the Caribbean and North American tectonic plates. It is 170 miles long and reaches its deepest point, called the Milwaukee Deep, at nearly 27,600 feet below the surface.