North · inland · ~26 mi from San Juan
Living in Ciales
Residents live in a rural mountain town that, despite its inland location, falls within the San Juan metropolitan statistical area.
How Ciales sits among Puerto Rico’s 78 municipios — every figure against the island median, with its source. Visiting instead? Things to do in Ciales.
Housing & money
Median rent in Ciales runs 19% below the Puerto Rico median — 6th lowest of 78 municipios.
- Median rent
- $431/moPR median $534 · 6th lowest of 78
- Median home value
- $96,500PR median $115,700 · 9th lowest of 78
- Median household income
- $22,586/yrPR median $24,070 · 52nd highest of 78
- Income per person
- $10,672PR median $14,811
- Homes owner-occupied
- 72%PR median 71.1%
- Homes vacant
- 23%PR median 20.3%
- Below the poverty line
- 54%PR median 44.1%
- Typical home built
- 1985median 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 29 minutes, 2 minutes longer than the island median.
- Typical commute
- 29 minPR median 27 min · 52nd shortest of 78
- Work from home
- 2.8%PR median 4.5%
- Commute by transit
- 0.3%PR median 0.3%
- Unemployment
- 11.5%PR median 10.5%
- Households with broadband
- 75%PR median 80.6% · 57th highest of 78
- To San Juan
- ~26 minext door: Morovis, Manatí, Florida
75% of households have a broadband subscription (57th of 78).
People
- Population
- 16,805172.3 km²
- Residents per km²
- 98PR median 295 · 73rd densest of 78
- Median age
- 45.9PR median 44.9
- Bachelor's degree or higher
- 17%PR median 24.1% · 73rd highest of 78
Daily life
What is mapped in Ciales today — counts, then per 10,000 residents so a small town and San Juan read on the same scale.
- Schools
- 116.5 per 10k · PR 6.3
- Supermarkets
- 10.6 per 10k · PR 0.7
- Parks
- 21.2 per 10k · PR 4.1
- Restaurants
- 53 per 10k · PR 2.1
- Bus stops
- 00 per 10k · PR 0
- Beaches
- 0inland
Counts from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL) — what volunteers have mapped, not an official register. Places our guide recommends in Ciales.
Water, power & safety
- Water. Ciales is not on the current AAA rationing calendar. Reservoir levels & the rationing calendar
- Power. LUMA reports outages by town; the live tracker shows Ciales’s share of customers out right now. Outages by town
- Safety. 13.7 reported violent crimes per 10,000 residents in 2025 — below most towns of the 78 municipios (0 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.
Latest from Ciales
Keep up with Ciales, one email a morning
The morning brief carries the day's Puerto Rico news, the water and power picture, weather and surf. Free, daily, unsubscribe anytime.
Check your inbox
We sent a confirmation link. Tap it and tomorrow's brief will be waiting for you in the morning. (Nothing arrives until you confirm — that's on purpose.)