Culebra, Puerto Rico in the context of "Municipalities of Puerto Rico"

Puerto Rico (abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a self-governing Caribbean archipelago and island organized as an unincorporated territory of the United States under the designation of commonwealth. Located about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of Miami, Florida, between the Dominican Republic in the Greater Antilles and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Lesser Antilles, it consists of the eponymous main island and numerous smaller islands, including Vieques, Culebra, and Mona. With approximately 3.2 million residents, it is divided into 78 municipalities, of which the most populous is the capital municipality of San Juan, followed by those within the San Juan metropolitan area. Spanish and English are the official languages of the government, though Spanish predominates.

Puerto Rico was settled by a succession of Amerindian peoples beginning 2,000 to 4,000 years ago; these included the Ortoiroid, Saladoid, and Taíno. It was claimed by Spain following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1493 and subsequently colonized by Juan Ponce de León in 1508. Puerto Rico was contested by other European powers into the 18th century but remained a Spanish possession for the next 400 years. The decline of the Indigenous population, followed by an influx of Spanish settlers, primarily from the Canary Islands and Andalusia, and African slaves vastly changed the cultural and demographic landscape of the archipelago. Within the Spanish Empire, Puerto Rico played a secondary but strategically significant role compared to larger and wealthier colonies like Peru and New Spain. By the late 19th century, a distinct Puerto Rican identity began to emerge, centered on a fusion of European, African, and Indigenous elements. In 1898, following the Spanish–American War, Puerto Rico was acquired by the United States.

The geography of Puerto Rico encompasses the geographical features of Puerto Rico, a Caribbean archipelagic and island nation centered around a collective identity based on its land, history, ethnicity, culture, and language, and organized as a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States. Located between the Greater and Lesser Antilles in the northeastern Caribbean Sea, east of Hispaniola, west of Saint Thomas, north of Venezuela, and south of the Puerto Rico Trench, it consists of the eponymous main island of Puerto Rico and 142 smaller islands, islets, and cays, including San Juan Islet in the north, Vieques and Culebra islands in the Virgin Islands, and Palominos island and Icacos cay in La Cordillera nature reserve in the east, Caja de Muertos island in Caja de Muertos reserve, and Caracoles and Media Luna cays in La Parguera reserve in the south, and Mona, Monito, and Desecheo islands in the Mona Passage in the west.

Measuring 177 km (110 mi; 96 nmi) in length and 65 km (40 mi; 35 nmi) in width with a land area of 8,868 sq km (3,424 sq mi), the main island of Puerto Rico is the 4th largest in the Caribbean, 29th in the Americas, and 81st in the world, making it the 170th largest country or dependency by surface area. With 3.2 million residents, it is also the 4th largest in the Caribbean, 4th in the Americas, and 31st in the world, making it the 136th largest country or dependency by population.

Vieques (/viˈeɪkəs/ ; Spanish pronunciation: [ˈbjekes], locally [ˈbjekeʔ]), officially the Isla de Vieques, is an island and municipality of Puerto Rico, comprising the Spanish Virgin Islands together with Culebra.   Located about 8 miles (13 km) east of the main island of Puerto Rico, it is about 20 miles (32 km) long and 4.5 miles (7 km) wide. Vieques is spread over 7 barrios and Isabela Segunda (or "Isabel the Second", sometimes written "Isabel II"), its historic and administrative center. Residents of the island are known as viequenses. The population of the island is 8,249 as of the 2020 Census.

The island's name is a Spanish spelling of a Taíno word said to mean "small island" or "small land". It also has the nickname Isla Nena, usually translated as "girl island" or "little girl island", alluding to its perception as Puerto Rico's little sister. The island was given this name by the Puerto Rican poet Luís Lloréns Torres. During the British colonial period, its name was Crab Island.

This is a list of islands of Puerto Rico.

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has over 143 islands, keys, and islets. Only the main island of Puerto Rico (3,424 sq mi [8,868 km2]), and the islands of Vieques (51 sq mi [130 km]), and Culebra (10 sq mi [26 km]) are inhabited. Mona Island (22 sq mi [57 km]) has personnel from the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) stationed year-around but no private citizens inhabit it (other than overnight camping guests and nature enthusiasts). Caja de Muertos Island (0.58 sq mi [1.5 km]) is also a DNER Nature Reserve, while Desecheo Island (0.58 sq mi [1.5 km]) is a National Wildlife Refuge administrated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

The La Cordillera Reef Nature Reserve (Spanish: Reserva Natural Arrecifes de la Cordillera) is a nature reserve consisting of La Cordillera (''the mountain range''), a small chain of cays, reefs, and skerries in the northeast of the archipelago and island of Puerto Rico. Located about 1 mile (0.87 nmi) off the coast of the municipality of Fajardo, the reserve extends about 15 miles (13 nmi) and 30,000 acres between Las Cabezas de San Juan cape in Fajardo and the island-municipality of Culebra in the Virgin Islands. From west to east, it comprises Las Cucarachas and Los Farallones skerries, Icacos, Ratones, and Lobos cays, Palominos and Palominitos islands, La Blanquilla and Diablo cays, and Hermanos and Barriles reefs, all of which cover about 218 acres of land.

With the exception of Palominos island and Lobos cay, which are privately owned, all cays, reefs, and skerries in the small chain are protected by the marine reserve. The nature reserve is also important for local fishermen and eastern coastal municipalities, including Fajardo, Ceiba, and Naguabo, which depend on the reserve for their fishing industries.

The Spanish Virgin Islands (Spanish: Islas Vírgenes Españolas), formerly called the Passage Islands (Spanish: Islas del Pasaje), commonly known as the Puerto Rican Virgin Islands (Spanish: Islas Vírgenes Puertorriqueñas), consist of the islands of Vieques and Culebra, which are administratively part of the archipelago of Puerto Rico as municipalities. Located between the main island of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the northeastern Caribbean, the islands are geographically part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.

Geologically separated from the Greater Antilles island of Hispaniola by the Mona Passage and from the Lesser Antilles island arc by the Anegada Passage, the main island of Puerto Rico, the Spanish Virgin Islands of Vieques and Culebra, the British Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands except for the southernmost island of Saint Croix, all lie on the same carbonate platform and insular shelf, the Puerto Rico Bank, between the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The archipelagos of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands except for Saint Croix also lie on the same tectonic plate, the Puerto Rico–Virgin Islands microplate.

Culebra barrio-pueblo or Culebra Pueblo (English: Culebra Town, historically: Dewey) is a barrio and the administrative center (seat) of Culebra, an island-municipality of Puerto Rico. Its population in 2010 was 462.

As was customary in Spain, in Puerto Rico, the municipality has a barrio called pueblo which contains a central plaza, the municipal buildings (city hall), and a Catholic church. Fiestas patronales (patron saint festivals) are held in the central plaza every year.