Statehood received 58.61% of the votes in Puerto Rico’s 2024 status vote.
This marks the fourth time in recent history (2012, 2017, 2020, and 2024) that statehood has secured majority support in Puerto Rico’s status votes, underscoring a consistent trend in favor of equality and full democracy through statehood.
The second place option: sovereignty in free association with the U.S., an often misunderstood option based on independence, was 29 points behind.
The statehood option also received more votes than any individual candidate running for office.
Puerto Ricans reinforced their preference for statehood by electing a majority of pro-statehood leaders, including Governor Jenniffer González-Colón and pro-statehood majorities in Puerto Rico’s House and Senate.
Sovereignty in free association with the United States received 29.57% of the votes and independence received 11.82% of the votes. These results were initially misreported, suggesting that independence had received nearly 30% of the vote. In fact, the nearly 12% showing for independence is much higher than in any previous plebiscite, but it is still the smallest fraction of the votes.
Taken together, the votes for statehood plus and option with “association with the U.S.” tell a story that 88% of voters want a strong relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico.
Where did the ballot choices come from?
The ballot options were derived directly from the Puerto Rico Status Act (H.R. 8393), which passed the U.S. House in 2022 with White House endorsement. The same legislative framework was reintroduced in the 118th Congress as S. 3231/H.R. 2757. The measure had 100 bipartisan co-sponsors in the House and 27 co-sponsors in the Senate — a historic high.
Free association has been on previous ballots, but it has a history of confusion in voters’ minds. Some voters may have thought that “Sovereign free association” was equivalent to the discredited “enhanced commonwealth” option.
Free association, a relationship which the United States currently has with three nations in the Pacific, is one under which the U.S. controls defense and national security for the foreign country. As a freely associated state, there would be precedent for Puerto Rico to continue to qualify for service from the U.S. Postal Service, but almost all other federal programs, such as Medicare and Social Security, would certainly disappear. U.S. citizenship in a Freely Associated State of Puerto Rico would also end
What is Free Association?
Citizenship
One of the major sources of confusion is the question of citizenship. The PRSA has been plagued by confusion and misinformation as to whether U.S. citizenship is possible under free association.
It is clear that there is no U.S. citizenship under free association today, and it is also clear that U.S. citizenship could not be guaranteed for a FAS in the future. Congress could rescind that privilege at any time. Either the United States or Puerto Rico could also change or cancel the Compact of Free Association at any time, even though U.S. military access to a freely associated state of Puerto Rico would continue. That’s the “free” in “free associated state.”
Constitutional Experts: U.S. Citizenship in Puerto Rico Guaranteed Only With Statehood
In the 2024 referendum, free association received nearly 30% of the vote — but that is still much less than the percentage of voters who favored statehood. The confusion that may have taken place is a moot point.
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