Cataño, Puerto Rico

Area Profile

22,467 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Cataño, in Cataño Municipio.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2660th of 3,904 published cities48
Housing affordability3644th of 4,223 published cities54
ClimateTop 22% of 4,223 published cities78
Physical resilience4015th of 4,182 published cities10
AccessTop 40% of 4,226 published cities95
Economic stability4209th of 4,226 published cities14
The quick read

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 5.7 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 27% of it.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane, earthquake and inland flooding.

A major airport is 9 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
22,467
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$25,508
Bottom 2% nationally
Density
4,650/sq mi
4.8 sq mi of land
Median age
43.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Cataño Municipio
Puerto Rico
Metro area
Nearest major airport
SJU
9 mi · Luis Munoz Marin Intl
Median home value
$144,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.5% is lower than 43% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.5% over the past year, to 7,597 employed residents.

Median household income of $25,508 is below 98% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$1,492$25,508Bottom 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,304$16,629Bottom 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate42.2%Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.2 minTop 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher23.2%Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment7,597Bottom 1%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)5.4%Top 5%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.5%Top 43%June 2026
Labor force7,955Bottom 1%June 2026
Labor force participation44.8%Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.8%Top 14%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.5%Top 43%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202426k20k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $25,508 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Cataño Municipio, PR, which contains this city.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $564 takes 27% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.7 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
26.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$564
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$144,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.66Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate59.5%Bottom 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±32611,337Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$65$564Bottom 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,543$144,500Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income26.5%Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate18.0%Top 27%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 75.4 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 51, in the Moderate band, and about 44 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station TOA BAJA LEVITTOWN, 1.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND9.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index111.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation75.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low70°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high88°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100442024 calendar year
Median air quality index51.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing6°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
51
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
111
90th percentile index
Days above 100
44
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

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. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

10 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, earthquake and inland flooding.

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 9 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Luis Munoz Marin IntlSJU9 mi10,400 ft
MerceditaPSE41 mi8,002 ft
Henry E RohlsenSTX101 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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Compare

Put Cataño side by side with a similar place.

Cataño vs BayamónCataño vs San JuanCataño vs CaguasCataño vs Fajardo

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)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
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)
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

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 Cataño

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
0096218,947$21,288