Isabela, Puerto Rico

Area Profile

11,048 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Isabela, in Isabela 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
Opportunity2921st of 3,904 published cities44
Housing affordability4079th of 4,223 published cities38
ClimateTop 4% of 4,223 published cities100
Physical resilience3701st of 4,182 published cities18
Access3635th of 4,226 published cities72
Economic stability4222nd of 4,226 published cities10
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 6.4% and the Opportunity signal places Isabela in the bottom 25%.

Housing costs more relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 35% of median household income and the median home is 5.6 times it.

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

At a glance

Population
11,048
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$21,796
Bottom 1% nationally
Density
4,220/sq mi
2.6 sq mi of land
Median age
44.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Isabela Municipio
Puerto Rico
Metro area
Nearest major airport
PSE
45 mi · Mercedita
Median home value
$121,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 6.4% is lower than 5% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 1.2% over the past year, to 14,543 employed residents.

Median household income of $21,796 is below 99% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,450$21,796Bottom 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,699$16,529Bottom 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate41.3%Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute29.6 minTop 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher27.7%Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment14,543Bottom 13%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)10.0%Top 1%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)1.2%Top 11%June 2026
Labor force15,544Bottom 14%June 2026
Labor force participation44.7%Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)1.1%Top 3%June 2026
Unemployment rate6.4%Top 5%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202422k17k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $21,796 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 Isabela Municipio, PR, which contains this city.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $633 takes 35% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.6 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
34.9%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$633
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$121,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.57Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate63.9%Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4915,826Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$88$633Bottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$24,133$121,300Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income34.9%Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate31.9%Top 11%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 86°F and January a low of 67°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 64.1 inches.

60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ISABELA SUBSTN, 3.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation64.1"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low67°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high86°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months121991-2020 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

18 / 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. 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 45 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
MerceditaPSE45 mi8,002 ft
Luis Munoz Marin IntlSJU67 mi10,400 ft
Henry E RohlsenSTX156 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 Isabela side by side with a similar place.

Isabela vs ManatíIsabela vs AguadillaIsabela vs Vega BajaIsabela vs Cayey

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)

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 Isabela

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
0066241,090$23,299