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.
Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.
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
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.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$826 | $19,877 | Bottom 1%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$750 | $14,625 | Bottom 1%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate | 49.7% | Top 1%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 25.1 min | Bottom 46%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 29.6% | Top 25%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 38,003 | Bottom 47%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | 4.4% | Top 12%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | -0.7% | Bottom 49%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 42,240 | Bottom 49%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 40.9% | Bottom 2%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | 1.8% | Top 1%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 10.0% | Top 1%of 1,255 | June 2026 |
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.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price to income | 5.54 | Top 6%of 3,219 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 67.3% | Bottom 21%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±812 | 69,741 | Top 13%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$21 | $536 | Bottom 2%of 3,216 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$2,098 | $110,200 | Bottom 11%of 3,219 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 32.4% | Top 1%of 3,216 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 19.9% | Top 27%of 3,222 | 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
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.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| 90th percentile air quality index | 38.0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Annual precipitation | 37.5" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Annual snowfall | 0.0" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 63°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 92°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 8 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Days above AQI 100 | 0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Median air quality index | 3.0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 6°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
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
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.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercedita | PSE | 3 mi | 8,002 ft |
| Luis Munoz Marin Intl | SJU | 50 mi | 10,400 ft |
| Henry E Rohlsen | STX | 120 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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Similar places
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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) |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | June 2026 | Monthly |
| 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) |
| Climate | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System Daily Air Quality Index by county | 2024 calendar year | Annually, 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.