00979Carolina, Puerto Rico

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 00979.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signals: opportunity, growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Housing affordability5476th of 6,685 published ZIP areas56
ClimateTop 24% of 6,789 published ZIP areas77
Physical resilience6420th of 6,709 published ZIP areas10
AccessTop 32% of 6,791 published ZIP areas97
Economic stability6579th of 6,742 published ZIP areas19
The quick read

Housing sits below most published city profiles for affordability: rent takes 29% of median household income and the median home is 4.7 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 major airport is 0 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
14,776
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$40,049
Bottom 6% nationally
Density
3,799/sq mi
3.9 sq mi of land
Median age
53.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Carolina
Puerto Rico
Metro area
Nearest major airport
SJU
0 mi · Luis Munoz Marin Intl
Median home value
$189,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

52% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 89% of measured US ZIP areas.

Median household income of $40,049 is below 94% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,409$40,049Bottom 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,984$36,566Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate21.6%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.6 minBottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher52.2%Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation54.8%Bottom 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202440k34k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $40,049 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $955 takes 29% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.7 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
28.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$955
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$189,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.74Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate66.4%Bottom 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±73712,642Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$107$955Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$15,880$189,900Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income28.6%Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate36.7%Top 10%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

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 88°F and January a low of 70°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 65.2 inches.

60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station WFO SAN JUAN, 0.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation65.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low70°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high88°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing6°F1991-2020 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

10 / 100
Physical resilience

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. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 0 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Luis Munoz Marin IntlSJU0 mi10,400 ft
MerceditaPSE48 mi8,002 ft
Henry E RohlsenSTX94 mi10,002 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 forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (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.

00979 vs Carolina

How this ZIP area compares with Carolina as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

00979
Carolina
Median household income
$40,049
vs
$37,726
Per capita income
$36,566
vs
$22,436
Population density
3,799/sq mi
vs
6,693/sq mi
Median home value
$189,900
vs
$158,400
Median gross rent
$955
vs
$677
Homeownership rate
66.4%
vs
67.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher
52.2%
vs
37.0%
Poverty rate
21.6%
vs
27.4%
Median age
53.6
vs
45.3

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.