Arecibo is a coastal town of 86,467 people in Puerto Rico’s North region. Median rent, $531 a month, sits level with the median town.
The median home is valued at $116,700, 1% above the median town. Median household income is $23,635, 2% below the median town, and 41.3% of residents live below the poverty line.
The typical commute is 26 minutes against the median town’s 27.4, and 5.1% of workers work from home. Broadband reaches 77.4% of households, and unemployment is 14.5% against the median town’s 10.5%.
The Puerto Rico Police Bureau’s statistics put Arecibo at 39.4 reported Type I incidents (the police bureau’s count of serious crime, homicide to car theft) per 10,000 residents, 17.1 of them violent. Arecibo is not on the water utility’s current rationing calendar.
By the numbers
| Measure | Arecibo | Median town (The middle of the 78 towns' own figures, not the Puerto Rico-wide one) | Rank (Rank among the 78 towns, with the direction that reads as better) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent (monthly) | $531 | $534 | 39th lowest of 78 |
| Median home value | $116,700 | $115,700 | 37th highest of 78 |
| Median household income | $23,635 | $24,070 | 37th lowest of 78 |
| Residents below the poverty line | 41.3% | 44.1% | 28th lowest of 78 |
| Owner-occupied homes | 65.4% | 71.1% | 12th lowest of 78 |
| Vacant housing units | 22.7% | 20.3% | 30th highest of 78 |
| Typical commute | 25.5 min | 27.4 min | 23rd lowest of 78 |
| Working from home | 5.1% | 4.5% | 32nd highest of 78 |
| Households with broadband | 77.4% | 80.6% | 29th lowest of 78 |
| Unemployment | 14.5% | 10.5% | 19th highest of 78 |
| Restaurants per 10,000 residents | 1.7 | 2.4 | 29th lowest of 77 |
Ranks count only the towns that have the figure, from the nearer end: “lowest” or “highest” says which.
Around it
| Nearby town | Monthly rent (Median monthly rent, against Arecibo's $531) |
|---|---|
| Hatillo | $595 ($64 more) |
| Barceloneta | $582 ($51 more) |
| Florida | $688 ($157 more) |
| Utuado | $476 ($55 less) |
Its patron-saint festival honors Saint Philip the Apostle around May 1.
Every figure above, with its source and vintage, is on the Living in Arecibo page; the town’s guide, news and events are on its town page, and the same metrics rank all 78 towns on the best-of lists.
This is the 7th Town of the Week (the previous one is here).
Sources: the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), 5-year estimates (2020–2024), OpenStreetMap contributors (mapped as of Oct 4, 2026), Puerto Rico Police Bureau Type I statistics, and the rationing plan the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (AAA) published. ACS estimates carry margins of error that widen for small towns and lag by years; OpenStreetMap counts depend on how fully the town is mapped; ranks are among the 78 towns.