San Juan has 2.37 million people in its CSA as of 2022, comparable to Las Vegas(2.38m) and Raleigh-Durham (2.33M). It's the largest Metropolitan area outside of the Lower 48 by far, being over twice the size of the Honolulu metro area (a bit under 1m), the second largest, but despite the size of the metropolitan area, Puerto Rico's status as a territory and not as a state makes it overlooked in most US city comparisons.
So, I aim to create this thread to compensate for all of that, trying to compare San Juan to the Other Metropolitan areas in the US in as many possible categories as I can think of. So, whether you're looking to move to the area like I am or just curious. I'll also fill in what I think I know.
1. Population: Just did that in the beginning
2. Cost of living: I asked another thread about this earlier. After reading that thread and some Google searching, what I found for the cost of living is interesting because the Jones Act made importing things from the lower USA, but unlike in Alaska and Hawaii, rent/property is still fairly cheap, creating 2 counteracting forces.
Here's a website I got on the other thread I posted going into more detail
3. Economy/Jobs: Don't know a whole lot but I heard their economy, and by extension, Puerto Rico's, was historically based on Pharmaceutical manufacturing, but I don't know how much that has an impact now. Being in the Caribbean, there's tourism though, obviously, but I don't think it's as dominant as it is in Florida, I'm not too sure about that though.
4. Crime:
5. Walkability/Bikeablility/Transit: Being the oldest city in the United States (predating St. Augustine, Florida by several decades), development is fairly dense in the city, especially in Viejo San Juan. I like that it has a heavy rail metro line unlike metro areas in the US around its size which tend to use light rail, but like in Charlotte and several other cities, it's not as expansive as it needs to be and doesn't have airport connections. I've also heard mixed things about the bus system there as well
6. Shopping: Part of why I'm so attracted to Puerto Rico is the shopping, tell me what you think though
7. Nightlife:
8. Politics: Puerto Rico being a territory and not a state is obviously the big elephant in the room here with the whole island split on whether it wants to become a state or remain a territory. On the last referendum, I saw that San Juan voted in favor of remaining a territory, unlike most other municipalities and the territory as a whole which voted for statehood. I hear support for independence, which is historically low, growing among young people, but I hear conflicting things about this. I generally hear that Puerto Rico is purple on other issues, but my guess is that San Juan would be more liberal as all cities are more liberal than their surroundings, how liberal is San Juan compared to other American cities, I don't know
9. Suburbs:
10. Traffic: I hear it's pretty bad
11. Quality of life: I know this is subjective, so just tell me your personal opinion about it
12. Anything else of note?
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