The Breadth of Population Change following Puerto Rico's Mass Sterilizations Beginning in the 1930s

Rebecca Luttinen, The University of Texas at San Antonio

The US was concerned with population growth in Puerto Rico in the 1930s, which began a campaign of sterilizations that lasted until the mid-1960s. In this project I map out the population change in Puerto Rico (PR) and the mainland United States (US) before, during and after these sterilizations took place. The US is used as a comparison group. In the analysis I use IPUMS-sourced census data to calculate two measures: 1) the ratio of children under the age of five per woman in their child-rearing years (16-49) in a given time period and 2) the ratio of children aged ten and under from one time period to the next. The results show more intense population decline in PR compared to the US following the sterilizations.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session 186. Politics of Gender and Reproduction: Dimensions of Speculative Fiction and Population Planning