Puerto Rico has no provinces and no counties: the island of 3,184,835 people is divided into 78 municipios, local government districts that each have their own mayor. The Census Bureau, the federal statistics agency, groups them into metro areas, and the biggest, around San Juan, held 2,024,195 people, or 63.6 percent of the island, on 1 July 2025.
This guide, checked on 12 November 2026 against data from the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS, the federal jobs-data agency), the IRS (the federal tax agency) and Congress, walks through the map region by region and what it means for travellers, investors and expats. For a US reader the short version is that this is US soil, so citizens need no passport, but the people, jobs and pay sit overwhelmingly in one corner.
A street in the Santurce district of San Juan, the heart of the metro area. Photo: The Eloquent Peasant / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).Puerto Rico Regions in Plain English
Puerto Rico is a US territory in the Caribbean, and its official building block is the municipio, a local government district run by a mayor. The US Census Bureau counts each of the 78 municipios as a county equivalent, meaning a unit it treats like a county, and no provinces exist.
Regions are therefore working labels, not legal ones. This guide uses the metro and micro areas drawn by the Office of Management and Budget, a federal agency, as the Census Bureau published them in its 2023 delineation file; our Puerto Rico country hub covers the wider story.
The 78 Municipios at a Glance
San Juan, the capital, is the largest municipio with 329,737 residents on 1 July 2025, followed by Bayamón (180,562), Carolina (149,874), Ponce (128,384) and Caguas (124,161). The 10 largest all have more than 66,000 people, and together they hold most of the island’s urban life.
At the other end, Culebra has 1,735 residents, Maricao 4,336, Vieques 7,867 and Las Marías 8,638. These four are the only municipios below 10,000 people.
The island is shrinking almost everywhere: it lost 3.1 percent of its people between the April 2020 census base and July 2025. Only six of the 78 municipios had more residents in 2025 than in 2020, led by Rincón on the west coast at 2.6 percent, Barranquitas at 1.8 percent and Naranjito at 1.3 percent; our Puerto Rico population guide explains why.
Metro San Juan, the Island’s Centre of Gravity
The San Juan-Bayamón-Caguas metro area covers 40 municipios and held 2,024,195 people on 1 July 2025, 2.7 percent fewer than at the 2020 base. Add the smaller areas tied to it, and the wider San Juan-Bayamón area has 50 municipios and 2,346,144 people, or 73.7 percent of the island.
San Juan, Bayamón, Carolina, Caguas and Guaynabo form the core, with 873,389 residents between them. The BLS counted 245,900 jobs in the city of San Juan in March 2026, which is 26.0 percent of the island’s employment even though the city has only 10.4 percent of its residents.
That gap points to commuting from neighbouring towns. The BLS also found San Juan employment down 3.0 percent over the year, with an average weekly wage of US$902, up 5.1 percent.
The highest pay on the island sits in the same metro area: Juncos had an average weekly wage of US$1,464 in the first quarter of 2026, according to the BLS. Juncos is a municipio of 36,639 residents.
West: Mayagüez, Aguadilla and the Coast
The west holds the island’s second-largest urban grouping, the Mayagüez-Aguadilla area, with 13 municipios and 456,443 people on 1 July 2025. That is 2.4 percent fewer than at the 2020 base.
It splits into the Aguadilla metro area (7 municipios, 250,088 people) and the Mayagüez metro area (6 municipios, 206,355 people). The city of Mayagüez has 68,905 residents, 5.7 percent fewer than in 2020, while nearby Rincón gained 2.6 percent to reach 15,582.
Salt evaporation ponds at Salinas de Cabo Rojo on the southwest coast. Photo: ForgottenColorado / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).Cabo Rojo, a southwest-coast municipio of 46,580 people, belongs to the Mayagüez metro area. Isabela (42,938) and Aguadilla (53,219) anchor the northwest in the Aguadilla metro area.
South: Ponce and the Caribbean Coast
Ponce, with 128,384 residents, is the fourth-largest municipio and the centre of the Ponce metro area, which has six municipios and 262,792 people. With the Coamo micro area (Coamo and Santa Isabel, 52,623 people) it forms the Ponce-Coamo area of eight municipios and 315,415 people.
The south is losing people faster than the island as a whole: the Ponce metro area fell 5.6 percent from the 2020 base, against 3.1 percent for Puerto Rico. Ponce itself dropped 6.6 percent, Yauco 7.5 percent and Guayanilla 7.3 percent.
The steepest fall of any municipio was in Guánica, on the southwest coast, which lost 14.1 percent of its residents and now has 11,840. Further east, the Guayama metro area (Arroyo, Guayama and Patillas) has 63,864 people, down 6.7 percent.
North Coast, Mountains and the Islands
On the north coast, the Arecibo metro area (Arecibo, Camuy, Hatillo and Quebradillas) has 179,229 people, and Arecibo itself has 85,539. The nearby north-coast towns of Manatí, Vega Baja and Dorado belong to the San Juan metro area, not to Arecibo’s.
The western and central mountains hold the smallest places: Utuado (26,894) and Lares (27,744) form micro areas, and Adjuntas, Jayuya, Las Marías and Maricao sit outside any metro or micro area. Maricao has 4,336 residents and lost 8.8 percent since 2020.
Palm-covered ridges and cloud over El Yunque National Forest in the northeast of Puerto Rico, photographed on 12 November 2019. Photo: Šarūnas Burdulis / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).Two islands off the east coast, Vieques (7,867) and Culebra (1,735), also sit outside any metro or micro area. Both lost residents since 2020, Vieques 4.6 percent and Culebra 3.2 percent.
Economy by Region: Jobs and Wages
Puerto Rico had 944,500 jobs in March 2026, down 0.8 percent over the year, and an average weekly wage of US$724 in the first quarter, up 3.4 percent, the BLS reported on 4 September 2026. The US average was US$1,654.
Pay differs sharply across the 78 municipios: 30 paid an average below US$525 a week, while 16 paid US$675 or more. Juncos led with US$1,464, and Las Marías, a mountain municipio outside any metro area, was lowest at US$411.
The highest figure sits inside the San Juan metro area and the lowest outside any metro area, which fits the population picture above. The BLS marks these figures as preliminary, and our guide to the island’s economy names the firms behind them.
Politics and Security Across the Map
Governor Jenniffer González-Colón was sworn in on 2 January 2025 and leads the island’s government. Pablo José Hernández Rivera has been Resident Commissioner, the island’s nonvoting member of the US House of Representatives, since 3 January 2025.
Each municipio is run by a mayor, and the island has no county or provincial level of government between the town hall and the governor. The Resident Commissioner serves a four-year term and cannot vote on final passage of bills, according to the Congressional Research Service, the research arm of Congress, and the Clerk of the House, the chamber’s administrative officer; see who holds power in Puerto Rico.
We found no police or crime statistics that compare the regions on the same basis, so this guide does not rank them. Our Puerto Rico security guide covers what is known island-wide.
What It Means for You
US citizens do not need a passport to travel between the mainland and Puerto Rico, according to USA.gov, the federal government’s information portal. Since 7 May 2025, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the federal airport-screening agency, has required passengers aged 18 and over to show a REAL ID-compliant licence (one meeting the federal security standard) or another acceptable ID, such as a passport, at its checkpoints.
Most services sit in the San Juan metro area, where 63.6 percent of residents live. The islands of Vieques and Culebra are far smaller, with 7,867 and 1,735 residents.
Under section 933 of the US tax code, bona fide (genuine) residents of Puerto Rico can exclude Puerto Rico-source income from US federal income tax, the IRS says. Pay from US government jobs is not excluded, and residents with other income may still need to file a federal return.
To count as a bona fide resident, a person generally must pass the presence test, have no tax home outside Puerto Rico and have a closer connection to the island than to the mainland or abroad, according to IRS Publication 1321, the agency’s guide for island residents. Anyone planning a move should read it before choosing a municipio or a job.
For investors, the official data show jobs and pay concentrated around San Juan while the south and several small towns shrink fastest. That mix points to the metro area as the main market and to the south as the place where population loss is steepest.
What Is Not Known
There is no single legal map of Puerto Rico’s regions, and government agencies and tourism marketers use their own groupings, which differ from the Census areas used here. Commuting flows between municipios are also not part of the data above, so the link between San Juan’s jobs and its neighbours’ residents is an inference.
More: Latin America news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Puerto Rico have provinces or regions?
No. It has 78 municipios and no provinces or counties; the Census Bureau treats each municipio as a county equivalent and groups them into metro and micro areas.
How many municipalities does Puerto Rico have?
Puerto Rico has 78. The largest is San Juan with 329,737 residents on 1 July 2025, and the smallest is Culebra with 1,735.
What is the biggest metro area in Puerto Rico?
The San Juan-Bayamón-Caguas metro area, with 40 municipios and 2,024,195 people on 1 July 2025. That is 63.6 percent of the island.
Do I need a passport to visit Puerto Rico?
US citizens do not need a passport for travel from the mainland, according to USA.gov. They do need acceptable ID at airport checkpoints, and since 7 May 2025 a licence must be REAL ID compliant, or a passport shown instead.
Is Puerto Rico a state?
No, it is a US territory. Its residents are represented in the House by a nonvoting Resident Commissioner and do not vote in presidential elections, according to the Resident Commissioner’s office.
Is the population of Puerto Rico falling?
Yes. It was 3,184,835 on 1 July 2025, 3.1 percent below the April 2020 base, and only six of the 78 municipios had grown.
Sources: US Census Bureau, Puerto Rico municipios population estimates, Vintage 2025, 2026-03-26; US Census Bureau, 2023 metropolitan and micropolitan delineation file; US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Municipio Employment and Wages in Puerto Rico, first quarter 2026, 2026-09-04; Congressional Research Service, Delegates and the Resident Commissioner; Clerk of the House, member FAQs; Office of the Resident Commissioner, About Puerto Rico; USA.gov, travel to US territories; TSA, REAL ID full enforcement on 7 May 2025, 2025-04-11; La Fortaleza, the governor’s office, swearing-in release, 2025-01-02; Clerk of the House, member profile of Pablo José Hernández; IRS, Publication 1321, special instructions for bona fide residents of Puerto Rico.