South · coastal · ~40 mi from San Juan

Living in Santa Isabel

Residents live in a coastal municipality of about 20,000 people spread across 7 barrios and the town center, positioned within the wider Ponce-Yauco-Coamo statistical region.

How Santa Isabel sits among Puerto Rico’s 78 municipios — every figure against the island median, with its source. Visiting instead? Things to do in Santa Isabel.

Housing & money

Median rent in Santa Isabel 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: $108,200PR median $115,700 · 25th lowest of 78
Median household income: $25,795/yrPR median $24,070 · 23rd highest of 78
Income per person: $17,827PR median $14,811
Homes owner-occupied: 78%PR median 71.1%
Homes vacant: 21%PR median 20.3%
Below the poverty line: 42%PR median 44.1%
Typical home built: 1989median 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 27 minutes, the island median.

Typical commute: 27 minPR median 27 min · 37th shortest of 78
Work from home: 4.6%PR median 4.5%
Commute by transit: 0.0%PR median 0.3%
Unemployment: 5.9%PR median 10.5%
Households with broadband: 83%PR median 80.6% · 30th highest of 78
To San Juan: ~40 minext door: Salinas, Coamo, Juana Díaz

83% of households have a broadband subscription (30th of 78).

People

Population: 19,90388.2 km²
Residents per km²: 226PR median 295 · 53rd densest of 78
Median age: 41.6PR median 44.9
Bachelor's degree or higher: 30%PR median 24.1% · 12th highest of 78

Daily life

What is mapped in Santa Isabel today — counts, then per 10,000 residents so a small town and San Juan read on the same scale.

Schools: 157.5 per 10k · PR 6.3
Supermarkets: 21 per 10k · PR 0.7
Parks: 105 per 10k · PR 4.1
Restaurants: 84 per 10k · PR 2.1
Bus stops: 00 per 10k · PR 0
Beaches: 1coastal municipio

Counts from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL) — what volunteers have mapped, not an official register. Places our guide recommends in Santa Isabel.

Water, power & safety

Water. Santa Isabel is not on the current AAA rationing calendar. Reservoir levels & the rationing calendar
Power. LUMA reports outages by town; the live tracker shows Santa Isabel’s share of customers out right now. Outages by town
Safety. 33.7 reported violent crimes per 10,000 residents in 2025 — among the highest of the 78 municipios (8 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.