RIGHT SPEAK: Puerto Rico: Despite Improved Economy, Many still are Leaving the Island in Droves

Puerto Rico's improving economy may be a welcome sight to foreigners who are heavily invested in the island, but it's not as pretty to the people living there.

The island saw a net loss of 144,000 people from 2010 to 2013, the largest exodus since a similar period following World War II, according to a report released Monday by the Pew Research Center. That outflow raises to 34% the number of people born in Puerto Rico now living on the U.S. mainland.

And they're not just going to reconnect with relatives.

"The search for economic opportunity is the most commonly given explanation for moving by island-born Puerto Ricans," the report concluded.

The details of this latest exodus come as the government continues trying different ways to control a budget that had exploded under heavy debt and costly pensions that have frightened scores of American investors. On Monday, Gov. Alejandro García Padilla pointed to the economic successes the government has had that can change people's minds about leaving.

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Other findings from the Pew report:

• In 2000, more Puerto Ricans were living on the island (3.6 million) than on the U.S. mainland (3.4 million). That has shifted dramatically in the past three years.

• There are now 4.9 million Puerto Ricans living on the mainland compared with 3.5 million on the island. Puerto Ricans are the second-largest Hispanic group on the U.S. mainland, trailing 34 million Mexicans and ahead of 2 million Cubans and 2 million Salvadorans.