1. Puerto Rico is Spanish for "rich port."
2. The United States changed the island's name to Porto Rico in 1898, and the name was changed back to Puerto Rico in 1931.
3. The island has an estimated 3.2 million people -- a population larger than that of 21 different states.
4. Puerto Rico is popularly known in Spanish as "la isla del encanto," which translates to "the island of enchantment."
5. Puerto Rico is the third most populous Caribbean island after Cuba, which has 11.1 million people, and Hispaniola, which has 10.3 million people in the Dominican Republic and 10.8 million people in Haiti.
6. Spanish Adm. Juan Ponce de León, who in 1513 named Florida "La Florida," which is Spanish for "the flowery land," served as the island's first governor.
7. Explorer Christopher Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista, after St. John the Baptist. Its capital city was named Ciudad de Puerto Rico, which translates to "Rich Port City" in Spanish. The island later came to be known as Puerto Rico and the capital city was referred to as San Juan.
8. The island's official government name in English is the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, but it is not a true commonwealth. Puerto Rico has 78 municipalities, which are similar to counties in the United States.
9. Puerto Rico's mainland is about 37 miles long and 106 miles wide. With an area of more than 3,500 square miles, the island is about the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.
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