San Juan · coastal · ~11 mi from San Juan
Living in Carolina
Residents live in a densely populated coastal city within the San Juan metro area, with a mix of urban downtown life in Carolina Pueblo and beachside living in Isla Verde.
How Carolina sits among Puerto Rico’s 78 municipios — every figure against the island median, with its source. Visiting instead? Things to do in Carolina.
Housing & money
Median rent in Carolina runs 27% above the Puerto Rico median — 70th lowest of 78 municipios.
- Median rent
- $677/moPR median $534 · 70th lowest of 78
- Median home value
- $157,600PR median $115,700 · 72nd lowest of 78
- Median household income
- $36,958/yrPR median $24,070 · 4th highest of 78
- Income per person
- $22,102PR median $14,811
- Homes owner-occupied
- 68%PR median 71.1%
- Homes vacant
- 19%PR median 20.3%
- Below the poverty line
- 28%PR median 44.1%
- Typical home built
- 1970median 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 30 minutes, 3 minutes longer than the island median.
- Typical commute
- 30 minPR median 27 min · 57th shortest of 78
- Work from home
- 11.4%PR median 4.5%
- Commute by transit
- 0.9%PR median 0.3%
- Unemployment
- 10.4%PR median 10.5%
- Households with broadband
- 90%PR median 80.6% · 4th highest of 78
- To San Juan
- ~11 minext door: Trujillo Alto, Canóvanas, Loíza
90% of households have a broadband subscription (4th of 78).
People
- Population
- 152,204117.5 km²
- Residents per km²
- 1,295PR median 295 · 4th densest of 78
- Median age
- 45.3PR median 44.9
- Bachelor's degree or higher
- 36%PR median 24.1% · 6th highest of 78
Daily life
What is mapped in Carolina today — counts, then per 10,000 residents so a small town and San Juan read on the same scale.
- Schools
- 483.2 per 10k · PR 6.3
- Supermarkets
- 191.2 per 10k · PR 0.7
- Parks
- 463 per 10k · PR 4.1
- Restaurants
- 966.3 per 10k · PR 2.1
- Bus stops
- 42728.1 per 10k · PR 0
- Beaches
- 0coastal municipio
Counts from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL) — what volunteers have mapped, not an official register. Places our guide recommends in Carolina.
Water, power & safety
- Water. Sectors of Carolina are on AAA's Carraízo rationing calendar (zones 1 and 2) — interruptions currently paused. Reservoir levels & the rationing calendar
- Power. LUMA reports outages by town; the live tracker shows Carolina’s share of customers out right now. Outages by town
- Safety. 26 reported violent crimes per 10,000 residents in 2025 — among the highest of the 78 municipios (12 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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