Puerto Rico lost 3 percent of its population - 110,700 people - between April 2010 and July 2013, Census Bureau figures released Thursday show.
The U.S. commonwealth's population stands at just over 3.61 million.
San Juan, the island's capital and most populous city, lost 20,000 resident over the period, a decline of 5.2 percent to 374,600.
Bayamon, Puerto Rico's second city, saw its population fall by 9,158 people, or 4.4 percent, to 199,000 residents. The No. 3 urban area, Carolina, lost 7,165 inhabitants.
More than 9,200 people moved away from Ponce, leaving southern Puerto Rico's major city with 157,000 residents.
Now in its eighth year of recession, Puerto Rico has an unemployment rate of 15 percent and many people, especially young professionals and recent college graduates, have migrated to the continental United States in search of opportunity. EFE