North · coastal · ~40 mi from San Juan
Living in Arecibo
Residents live in Puerto Rico's largest municipality by area, a historic coastal city that anchors its own metropolitan region while remaining connected to the greater San Juan area.
How Arecibo sits among Puerto Rico’s 78 municipios — every figure against the island median, with its source. Visiting instead? Things to do in Arecibo.
Housing & money
Median rent in Arecibo sits right at the Puerto Rico median.
- Median rent
- $531/moPR median $534 · 39th lowest of 78
- Median home value
- $116,700PR median $115,700 · 42nd lowest of 78
- Median household income
- $23,635/yrPR median $24,070 · 42nd highest of 78
- Income per person
- $15,244PR median $14,811
- Homes owner-occupied
- 65%PR median 71.1%
- Homes vacant
- 23%PR median 20.3%
- Below the poverty line
- 41%PR median 44.1%
- Typical home built
- 1978median year
For scale: the U.S. median rent is $1,413 and household income $80,734; Puerto Rico's are $578 and $26,297. Full cost-of-living comparison.
Work & getting around
The typical commute is 26 minutes, 2 minutes shorter than the island median.
- Typical commute
- 26 minPR median 27 min · 23rd shortest of 78
- Work from home
- 5.1%PR median 4.5%
- Commute by transit
- 0.6%PR median 0.3%
- Unemployment
- 14.5%PR median 10.5%
- Households with broadband
- 77%PR median 80.6% · 50th highest of 78
- To San Juan
- ~40 minext door: Hatillo, Camuy, Barceloneta
77% of households have a broadband subscription (50th of 78).
People
- Population
- 86,467326.2 km²
- Residents per km²
- 265PR median 295 · 46th densest of 78
- Median age
- 45.5PR median 44.9
- Bachelor's degree or higher
- 28%PR median 24.1% · 23rd highest of 78
Daily life
What is mapped in Arecibo today — counts, then per 10,000 residents so a small town and San Juan read on the same scale.
- Schools
- 313.6 per 10k · PR 6.3
- Supermarkets
- 30.3 per 10k · PR 0.7
- Parks
- 354 per 10k · PR 4.1
- Restaurants
- 151.7 per 10k · PR 2.1
- Bus stops
- 00 per 10k · PR 0
- Beaches
- 4coastal municipio
Counts from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL) — what volunteers have mapped, not an official register. Places our guide recommends in Arecibo.
Water, power & safety
- Water. Arecibo is not on the current AAA rationing calendar. Reservoir levels & the rationing calendar
- Power. LUMA reports outages by town; the live tracker shows Arecibo’s share of customers out right now. Outages by town
- Safety. 17.1 reported violent crimes per 10,000 residents in 2025 — middle of the island of the 78 municipios (10 homicides that year). Every town, with context
- Hurricanes. Every municipio prepares the same way; the Puerto Rico version of the checklist starts from a grid and water system that take longer to come back. Prepare
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimates, 2020–2024 ACS 5-Year Estimates (5-year estimates — small municipios carry wide margins of error); OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), mapped as of 2026-08-13; Puerto Rico Police Bureau, SAEC Type I, 2025 full year; AAA — Plan de Interrupciones Programadas. Figures refresh when each source publishes; nothing here is modelled or estimated by us.
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