AreaProfile

Ponce, Puerto Rico

Area Profile

107,805 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Ponce, in Ponce Municipio.

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 affordability4042nd of 4,223 published cities40
ClimateTop 16% of 4,223 published cities81
Physical resilience4068th of 4,182 published cities8
AccessTop 40% of 4,226 published cities95
Economic stability4219th of 4,226 published cities11
The quick read

Housing costs more relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 33% of median household income and the median home is 5.8 times it.

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

A major airport is 4 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
107,805
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$19,470
Bottom 1% nationally
Density
3,802/sq mi
28.4 sq mi of land
Median age
44.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Ponce Municipio
Puerto Rico
Metro area
Nearest major airport
PSE
4 mi · Mercedita
Median home value
$113,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

32% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 72% of measured US cities.

Median household income of $19,470 is below 99% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$736$19,470Bottom 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$831$15,221Bottom 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate49.6%Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.8 minBottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher31.6%Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation40.6%Bottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202419k18k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $19,470 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 33% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.8 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
33.0%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$536
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$113,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.81Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate65.4%Bottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±95158,675Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$21$536Bottom 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$2,234$113,100Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income33.0%Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate19.9%Top 24%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.

50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station PONCE 4 E, 6.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND6.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
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
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

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 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.

Crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source 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. Reported crime is also easy to misread: agency participation varies year to year, and a city that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate.
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 4 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
MerceditaPSE4 mi8,002 ft
Luis Munoz Marin IntlSJU51 mi10,400 ft
Henry E RohlsenSTX122 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 Ponce side by side with a similar place.

Ponce vs CaguasPonce vs CatañoPonce vs San GermánPonce 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)
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 Ponce

5 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
0072836,532$23,031
0073031,081$18,089
0071627,945$20,652
0071714,577$13,602
0078013,446$27,967