South · coastal · ~49 mi from San Juan
Living in Peñuelas
Residents live in a coastal valley town with a long history dating to 1793, a strong cultural identity tied to its güiro and flamboyán nicknames, and proximity to the larger Yauco and Ponce area.
How Peñuelas sits among Puerto Rico’s 78 municipios — every figure against the island median, with its source. Visiting instead? Things to do in Peñuelas.
Housing & money
Median rent in Peñuelas runs 8% below the Puerto Rico median — 21st lowest of 78 municipios.
- Median rent
- $489/moPR median $534 · 21st lowest of 78
- Median home value
- $89,600PR median $115,700 · 5th lowest of 78
- Median household income
- $22,697/yrPR median $24,070 · 50th highest of 78
- Income per person
- $12,056PR median $14,811
- Homes owner-occupied
- 70%PR median 71.1%
- Homes vacant
- 20%PR median 20.3%
- Below the poverty line
- 52%PR median 44.1%
- Typical home built
- 1983median 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, 1 minute shorter than the island median.
- Typical commute
- 26 minPR median 27 min · 31st shortest of 78
- Work from home
- 2.7%PR median 4.5%
- Commute by transit
- 0.4%PR median 0.3%
- Unemployment
- 11.2%PR median 10.5%
- Households with broadband
- 85%PR median 80.6% · 20th highest of 78
- To San Juan
- ~49 minext door: Guayanilla, Adjuntas, Ponce
85% of households have a broadband subscription (20th of 78).
People
- Population
- 19,853115.6 km²
- Residents per km²
- 172PR median 295 · 62nd densest of 78
- Median age
- 41.7PR median 44.9
- Bachelor's degree or higher
- 25%PR median 24.1% · 34th highest of 78
Daily life
What is mapped in Peñuelas today — counts, then per 10,000 residents so a small town and San Juan read on the same scale.
- Schools
- 147.1 per 10k · PR 6.3
- Supermarkets
- 00 per 10k · PR 0.7
- Parks
- 136.5 per 10k · PR 4.1
- Restaurants
- 10.5 per 10k · PR 2.1
- Bus stops
- 00 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 Peñuelas.
Water, power & safety
- Water. Peñuelas is not on the current AAA rationing calendar. Reservoir levels & the rationing calendar
- Power. LUMA reports outages by town; the live tracker shows Peñuelas’s share of customers out right now. Outages by town
- Safety. 13.6 reported violent crimes per 10,000 residents in 2025 — below most towns of the 78 municipios (1 homicide 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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