Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Area Profile
40,831 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Arecibo, in Arecibo Municipio.
Missing required signals: opportunity, growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.
Housing sits below most published city profiles for affordability: rent takes 26% of median household income and the median home is 5.0 times it — each just short of the thresholds that would count as strained, but both toward the costly end.
Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane, earthquake and landslide.
A typical July reaches 87°F and a typical January falls to 61°F, on thirty-year normals.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Median household income of $22,968 is below 98% of measured US cities.
| Metric | Value | Compared with peers | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$1,651 | $22,968 | Bottom 2% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$1,074 | $15,906 | Bottom 4% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate | 40.7% | Top 5% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 25.4 min | Bottom 43% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 30.4% | Top 30% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Labor force participation | 44.0% | Bottom 13% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
Housing & affordability
How it’s calculated →Median rent of $505 takes 26% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 5.0 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.
| Metric | Value | Compared with peers | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price to income | 4.96 | Top 16% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 59.5% | Bottom 20% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±758 | 21,388 | Top 3% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$49 | $505 | Bottom 4% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$4,796 | $114,000 | Bottom 25% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 26.4% | Top 13% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 23.1% | Top 19% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.
Growth & development
How it’s calculated →No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.
Weather & climate
12 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 87°F and January a low of 61°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 84.6 inches.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation | 84.6" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Annual snowfall | 0.0" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 61°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 87°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 12 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 6°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.
Physical risk
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, earthquake and landslide.
Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.
What this profile does not cover
Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.
- Reported crime
- The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
- Taxes
- No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
- Full cost of living
- No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.
Access
2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 33 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercedita | PSE | 33 mi | 8,002 ft |
| Luis Munoz Marin Intl | SJU | 48 mi | 10,400 ft |
| Henry E Rohlsen | STX | 137 mi | 10,002 ft |
Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.
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Data & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle | 28-day NASR cycle |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) | Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current) |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals | Every ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period) |
| Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year | Annual (5-year estimates released each December) |
Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.
ZIP codes in Arecibo
1 published ZIP profiles| ZIP | Population | Median household income | Area Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00612 | 62,908 | $24,488 | — |