Ponce Municipio, PR

County Profile

132,760 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Ponce Municipio, PR.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

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
Opportunity1099th of 1,255 counties measured35
Housing affordability1245th of 1,255 counties measured43
ClimateTop 6% of 1,254 counties measured81
Physical resilience1232nd of 1,255 counties measured8
AccessTop 17% of 1,255 counties measured95
Economic stability1247th of 1,255 counties measured8
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 10.0% and the Opportunity signal places Ponce Municipio in the bottom 12%.

Housing costs more relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 32% of median household income and the median home is 5.5 times it.

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

At a glance

Population
132,760
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$19,877
Bottom 1% nationally
Density
1,155/sq mi
114.9 sq mi of land
Median age
44.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Ponce Municipio
Puerto Rico
Metro area
Nearest major airport
PSE
3 mi · Mercedita
Median home value
$110,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 10.0% is lower than 1% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.7% over the past year, to 38,003 employed residents.

30% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 75% of measured US locations.

Median household income of $19,877 is below 100% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$826$19,877Bottom 1%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$750$14,625Bottom 1%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate49.7%Top 1%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.1 minBottom 46%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher29.6%Top 25%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment38,003Bottom 47%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)4.4%Top 12%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.7%Bottom 49%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force42,240Bottom 49%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation40.9%Bottom 2%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)1.8%Top 1%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate10.0%Top 1%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/072022/042023/012023/102024/072025/042026/012026/06137.7
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 10.0% in June 2026.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202420k18k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $19,877 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 $536 takes 32% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.5 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
32.4%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$536
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$110,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income5.54Top 6%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate67.3%Bottom 21%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±81269,741Top 13%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$21$536Bottom 2%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$2,098$110,200Bottom 11%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income32.4%Top 1%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate19.9%Top 27%of 3,2222024 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

8 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 92°F and January a low of 63°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 37.5 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 3, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station PONCE 4 E, 5.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND6.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index38.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation37.5"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low63°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high92°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index3.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing6°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
3
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
38
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
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

8 / 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 National Risk Index county record. 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

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

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
MerceditaPSE3 mi8,002 ft
Luis Munoz Marin IntlSJU50 mi10,400 ft
Henry E RohlsenSTX120 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)
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.

Cities in Ponce Municipio, PR