Central · inland · ~52 mi from San Juan
Living in Lares
Residents live in a mountain town made up of rural barrios and a central pueblo, within the Aguadilla-Isabela-San Sebastián metropolitan area and roughly 52 miles from San Juan.
How Lares sits among Puerto Rico’s 78 towns: every figure against the median town, with its source. Visiting instead? Things to do in Lares.
Housing and money
Median rent in Lares runs 5% below the median of the 78 towns (27th lowest of 78 towns).
- Median rent
- $505/momedian town $534 · 27th lowest of 78
- Median home value
- $105,100median town $115,700 · 21st lowest of 78
- Median household income
- $18,917/yrmedian town $24,070 · 7th lowest of 78
- Income per person
- $11,029median town $14,811
- Homes owner-occupied
- 63%median town 71.1%
- Homes vacant
- 17%median town 20.3%
- Below the poverty line
- 55%median town 44.1%
- Typical home built
- 1984median year
For scale: the U.S. median rent is $1,413 and household income $80,734; Puerto Rico's, island-wide, are $578 and $26,297. Full cost-of-living comparison.
Work and getting around
The typical commute is 31 minutes, 3 minutes longer than the median of the 78 towns.
- Typical commute
- 31 minmedian town 27 min · 18th longest of 78
- Work from home
- 0.9%median town 4.5%
- Commute by transit
- 0.3%median town 0.3%
- Unemployment
- 13.0%median town 10.5%
- Households with broadband
- 78%median town 80.6% · 30th lowest of 78
- To San Juan
- ~52 miNext door: San Sebastián, Las Marías, Maricao, Utuado, Camuy, Hatillo, Adjuntas and Yauco
People
- Population
- 27,855Census estimate, 2020–2024 · 61.5 sq mi (159.2 km²)
- Residents per sq mi
- 453median town 763 · 19th least dense of 78
- Median age
- 45.5median town 44.9
- Bachelor's degree or higher
- 21%median town 24.1% · 17th lowest of 78
Daily life
What is mapped in Lares today: counts, then per 10,000 residents so a small town and San Juan read on the same scale.
- Schools
- 176.1 per 10k · median town 6.3
- Supermarkets
- 10.4 per 10k · median town 0.7
- Parks
- 113.9 per 10k · median town 4.3
- Restaurants
- 72.5 per 10k · median town 2.4
- Beaches
- 0inland
Counts from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL): what volunteers have mapped, not an official register. Places our guide recommends in Lares.
Water, power and safety
- Water. Lares is not on an AAA rationing calendar. Reservoir levels & the rationing calendar
- Power. LUMA reports outages by sector; the live tracker shows how many sectors in Lares are out right now. Outages by town
- Safety. 10.4 reported violent crimes per 10,000 residents in 2025, among the lowest of the 78 towns (0 homicides that year). Every town, with context
- Hurricanes. Every town 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 (small towns carry wide margins of error); OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), mapped as of Oct 4, 2026; Puerto Rico Police Bureau, SAEC Type I, 2025 full year; AAA: Plan de Interrupciones Programadas.