The widely-cited Morris et al. 2016 global circumcision dataset lists Puerto Rico at just 0.14% — a figure this research treats as almost certainly unreliable. A real, peer-reviewed 2012 clinic study of 660 men at a San Juan sexually-transmitted-infection clinic found circumcision at 32.4%, roughly 230 times higher. Neither figure is a perfect national measurement, but together they suggest Puerto Rico occupies a genuinely intermediate position: distinctly lower than typical mainland-US rates, yet higher than typical Latin American rates — a reasonable reflection of its dual identity as culturally Hispanic Catholic yet medically integrated with the US healthcare system.
The widely-cited Morris et al. 2016 global circumcision dataset (PMC4772313) lists Puerto Rico at just 0.14% — a figure this research treats as almost certainly unreliable rather than as fact. That number would place Puerto Rico among the most intact-norm territories anywhere in the world, an implausible claim given Puerto Rico's decades of political and medical integration with the United States, where hospital-based neonatal circumcision has historically been common.
A real, peer-reviewed source contradicts the official figure dramatically. Rodríguez-Díaz and colleagues' 2012 study, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, surveyed 660 men attending a sexually-transmitted-infection clinic in San Juan and found 32.4% were circumcised — roughly 230 times higher than the Morris dataset's number. Neither figure is a perfect measurement of Puerto Rico's true national rate: the Morris figure is a modeled estimate rather than a survey, while the clinic study draws from an STI-clinic population rather than a general-population sample. But taken together, they support a specific and reasonably confident conclusion: Puerto Rico occupies a genuinely intermediate position, distinctly lower than typical mainland-US circumcision rates (historically 71-80%) but higher than typical Latin American intact-norm rates (roughly 10-30%, comparable to Mexico's approximately 15%) — a plausible reflection of Puerto Rico's dual identity as culturally Hispanic and Catholic, yet politically and medically part of the US healthcare and Medicaid system.
This research did not locate a Puerto Rico-specific circumcision statute distinct from general US federal Medicaid and insurance coverage rules that apply territory-wide, nor any verified Puerto Rico-specific circumcision harm case — both honest gaps. Female genital mutilation is a wholly separate matter, not addressed by this profile.
Puerto Rico had approximately 572.6 per 100,000 adults and adolescents living with diagnosed HIV as of 2016 (CDC HIV Surveillance Report), roughly 0.57% of that age group — the sixth-highest rate among US states and dependent areas that year. A separate Puerto Rico Department of Health count found 18,117 people living with diagnosed HIV at year-end 2018, a rate of about 567 per 100,000 total population. No more recent update could be verified. This reflects a historically elevated epidemic driven significantly by injection drug use and centered on the San Juan metropolitan area. Puerto Rico is not a WHO Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) priority territory; all 15 WHO VMMC priority countries are in Eastern and Southern Africa.
