Vieques · coastal · ~50 mi from San Juan
Living in Vieques
Life in Vieques centers on a small island community spread across seven barrios and the historic center of Isabel Segunda, set apart from mainland Puerto Rico by its coastal, island geography.
How Vieques sits among Puerto Rico’s 78 municipios — every figure against the island median, with its source. Visiting instead? Things to do in Vieques.
Housing & money
Median rent in Vieques runs 19% below the Puerto Rico median — 5th lowest of 78 municipios.
- Median rent
- $430/moPR median $534 · 5th lowest of 78
- Median home value
- $100,000PR median $115,700 · 14th lowest of 78
- Median household income
- $19,803/yrPR median $24,070 · 69th highest of 78
- Income per person
- $11,056PR median $14,811
- Homes owner-occupied
- 67%PR median 71.1%
- Homes vacant
- 43%PR median 20.3%
- Below the poverty line
- 59%PR median 44.1%
- Typical home built
- 1987median 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 13 minutes, 14 minutes shorter than the island median.
- Typical commute
- 13 minPR median 27 min · 2nd shortest of 78
- Work from home
- 24.0%PR median 4.5%
- Commute by transit
- 1.2%PR median 0.3%
- Unemployment
- 6.1%PR median 10.5%
- Households with broadband
- 79%PR median 80.6% · 44th highest of 78
- To San Juan
- ~50 minext door: Culebra, Ceiba, Fajardo
79% of households have a broadband subscription (44th of 78).
People
- Population
- 8,078131.5 km²
- Residents per km²
- 61PR median 295 · 76th densest of 78
- Median age
- 46.5PR median 44.9
- Bachelor's degree or higher
- 12%PR median 24.1% · 78th highest of 78
Daily life
What is mapped in Vieques today — counts, then per 10,000 residents so a small town and San Juan read on the same scale.
- Schools
- 911.1 per 10k · PR 6.3
- Supermarkets
- 00 per 10k · PR 0.7
- Parks
- 78.7 per 10k · PR 4.1
- Restaurants
- 1012.4 per 10k · PR 2.1
- Bus stops
- 00 per 10k · PR 0
- Beaches
- 22coastal municipio
Counts from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL) — what volunteers have mapped, not an official register. Places our guide recommends in Vieques.
Water, power & safety
- Water. Vieques is not on the current AAA rationing calendar. Reservoir levels & the rationing calendar
- Power. LUMA reports outages by town; the live tracker shows Vieques’s share of customers out right now. Outages by town
- Safety. 21 reported violent crimes per 10,000 residents in 2025 — above most towns of the 78 municipios (2 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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