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Place dossier plate
SheetPR-VEGA-BAJA-ZONA-URBANA-PR · Vega Baja zona urbana, PR 22,730 pop · income 1st pct · 14 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Vega Baja zona urbana
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Vega Baja zona urbana on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Guayama zona… · lowest
21,010
Guayama zona… · lowest
21,010 median HH income
15.9% of the leader · rank #1
Mill Spring · near
22,411
Mill Spring · near
22,411 median HH income
17.0% of the leader · rank #2
Vega Baja zon… · this city
22,455
Vega Baja zon… · this city
22,455 median HH income
17.0% of the leader · rank #3
Gloster · near
22,500
Gloster · near
22,500 median HH income
17.0% of the leader · rank #4
Wakpala · near
22,500
Wakpala · near
22,500 median HH income
17.0% of the leader · rank #5
Kopperston · near
22,500
Kopperston · near
22,500 median HH income
17.0% of the leader · rank #6
Martha Lake · highest
132,130
Martha Lake · highest
132,130 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Vega Baja zona urbana on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 22,730.
Vega Baja zona urbana ranks in the 1st percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
1st
percentile, household income
15th
percentile, home value
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Vega Baja zona urbana, PR
Vega Baja zona urbana is a small city in Puerto Rico, home to 22,730 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $22,455 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 39.4%. Home values in Vega Baja zona urbana run a median of $115,400, and the median resident age is 44.1 years.
Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Puerto Rico run around $195, per EIA 2023 residential energy data.
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Vega Baja zona urbana's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from work and mobility to within-city variation to comparison shortlist to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Vega Baja zona urbana, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, matched public-school count, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Vega Baja zona urbana?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 92.9%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
What can 14 Census tracts reveal inside Vega Baja zona urbana?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 14 Census tracts to this city.
Which cities make useful reference points for Vega Baja zona urbana?
Within Puerto Rico, the closest population matches are Cataño zona urbana (22,768 residents, $24,307 income); Fajardo zona urbana (25,524 residents, $24,305 income); Mansión del Mar comunidad (26,540 residents, $37,256 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Roselle, IL (22,731 residents); Martha Lake, WA (22,740 residents); Machesney Park, IL (22,744 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
How far does income reach against housing in Vega Baja zona urbana?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 39.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 39.4% (Highest-decile poverty)
Median Home Value
$115,400
Lower home values
F
City profile score · Vega Baja zona urbana, PR
0/100
2 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Household income F
$22,455
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
39.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share N/A
N/A
No ACS bachelor's-attainment share on file for this place.
Cost of living N/A
N/A
No cost-of-living index on file for this place.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
How does Vega Baja zona urbana compare to other US cities?
Here's how Vega Baja zona urbana stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income1% higher than other cities
Home value15% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Vega Baja zona urbana against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Puerto Rico only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Puerto Rico-relative analysis
Median Home Value sits close to the middle of Puerto Rico's city distribution
Among the 274 Puerto Rico cities PlainCities tracks with reported median home value data, Vega Baja zona urbana ranks #79 - the 71st percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Vega Baja zona urbana only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#105 of 268
61st percentile in Puerto Rico
Median Home Value
#79 of 274
71st percentile in Puerto Rico
Poverty Rate
#202 of 286
29th percentile in Puerto Rico
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Puerto Rico only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
1st percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Vega Baja zona urbana's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$115,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 85% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Vega Baja zona urbana's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,117 of 15,516
More affordable than 15% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,690 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 5.1×, Vega Baja zona urbana sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,117 of 15,516 and #2,690 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$22,455Vega Baja zona urbana, PR median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Vega Baja zona urbana, PR median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Vega Baja zona urbana, PR.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Poverty rate (households below FPL)39.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)36.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
22,730
Median Income
$22,455
Median Home Value
$115,400
Median Age
44.1
Poverty Rate
39.4%
Labor force participation
36.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
N/A
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
92.9%
Carpool
2.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.7%
Work from Home
0.6%
Other
0.6%
Based on 7,053 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Puerto Rico statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $195
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Puerto Rico at $195 (electricity about $160 , water and sewer about $35 ).
These are Puerto Rico statewide averages, not a meter reading for Vega Baja zona urbana. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
How Vega Baja zona urbana compares to similar-size Puerto Rico cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.