Dorado Municipio area

Dorado Municipio, Puerto Rico covers 53.8 square miles: 23.1 square miles of land and 30.6 square miles of water. Its county seat is Dorado. An estimated 35,891 people lived there in 2025.

Official Census measurements · GEOID 720512026 Gazetteer · retrieved September 27, 2026
Land area23.1 mi²
Water area30.6 mi²
Population (2025)35,891
People per mi²1,551

County outline

Generalized outline of Dorado Municipio, Puerto Rico
2025 Census cartographic boundary, fitted to this frame. County maps are not at a common scale. The 2026 area measurements below come from the separate Gazetteer release. Map source and limitations.

Where Dorado Municipio is located

Dorado Municipio highlighted on a map of all U.S. county equivalents. Puerto Rico is repositioned as an inset at the common scale. About the maps

Area breakdown

Land accounts for 43% of Dorado Municipio’s measured area and water for 57%. Its combined area converts to 139.2 square kilometers or approximately 34,408 acres.

Green: land · blue: water

MeasurementSquare milesSquare kilometersAcres
Land23.14259.93814,810.9
Water30.6279.30519,596.8
Total53.762139.24334,407.7

How Dorado Municipio compares

By original Census land area, Dorado Municipio ranks #67 of 78 in Puerto Rico and #3182 of 3,222 nationally. National rankings include the 50 states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Its land area is 0.551 times the Puerto Rico county-equivalent median of 42 square miles. It accounts for 0.7% of the combined county land area in the state.

See the complete Puerto Rico ranking · What counts as a county equivalent?

Population and density of Dorado Municipio

The Census Bureau estimates that 35,891 people lived in Dorado Municipio on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,330 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #30 of 78 in Puerto Rico. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 35,876, the population has grown by 15 (+0%), compared with −3.1% for Puerto Rico as a whole.

With 23.1 square miles of land, that is 1,551 people per square mile (599 per km²), placing Dorado Municipio #112 nationally for density and #10 in Puerto Rico. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Puerto Rico median is 754. Put another way, there are about 0.413 acres of land per resident.

Estimated population, 2020–2025 · line scaled to this county’s own range
July 1202020212022202320242025
Estimate35,88835,92835,65335,70435,87535,891
Change—+40−275+51+171+16

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Dorado Municipio

Puerto Rico has no incorporated places below the municipio: Dorado Municipio is itself the local government. The Census Bureau describes the settlements inside it, such as zonas urbanas and comunidades, as statistical places, and publishes no separate annual estimates for them.

Metropolitan area

Dorado Municipio is a central county of the San Juan-Bayamón-Caguas, PR Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 40 county equivalents have 2,024,195 residents on 1,437.8 square miles of land; Dorado Municipio accounts for 1.6% of the land and 1.8% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #229 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #36 by population. It belongs to the San Juan-Bayamón, PR Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

2 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Dorado Municipio, and each lies mostly inside the county.

0064600950

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Dorado Municipio

Dorado Municipio shares a land border with 3 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Dorado Municipio. The largest neighbor is Vega Alta Municipio (27.7 mi²) and the smallest is Toa Baja Municipio (23.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Dorado Municipio forms a block of 101.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 22.9%.

Map of Dorado Municipio and the 3 county equivalents that border it Vega Alta Municipio, Puerto Rico: 27.7 mi² landToa Baja Municipio, Puerto Rico: 23.3 mi² landToa Alta Municipio, Puerto Rico: 27 mi² land
Dorado Municipio (dark) and its bordering county equivalents. Select a neighbor to open its profile. Drawn from the 2025 Census cartographic boundaries in an equal-area projection. How borders are determined.
Bordering county equivalentLand mi²Size vs. DoradoCompare
Vega Alta Municipio27.71.2× largerCompare
Toa Alta Municipio271.2× largerCompare
Toa Baja Municipio23.3about the sameCompare

How big is Dorado Municipio compared with U.S. states?

Dorado Municipio has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 45 times as much. Puerto Rico’s county land could hold about 148 areas the size of Dorado Municipio.

Land area: Dorado Municipio and the closest-sized states
Dorado Municipio23.1 mi²
Rhode Island1,033.9 mi²

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 4.81 miles (7.7 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Dorado Municipio?

Dorado Municipio has more land than 40 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

Land area compared with the typical county equivalent
Dorado Municipio23.1 mi²
Puerto Rico median42 mi²
National median604.5 mi²

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Dorado Municipio at #3,151 nationally by total area, 31 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 57%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 55.8 percentage points higher. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Dorado Municipio in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Land rankCounty equivalentLand mi²Comparison
#3181Toa Baja Municipio, Puerto Rico23.3Compare
#3182Dorado Municipio, Puerto Rico23.1This county
#3183Petersburg city, Virginia22.7Compare

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.

Representative coordinates

The Census internal point is 18.474376, -66.261973. It represents a location inside the geography; it is not necessarily the centroid or the address of a courthouse.

Source and precision

U.S. Census Bureau, 2026 Gazetteer Files, Counties. Original ALAND: 59,936,449 m²; AWATER: 79,305,349 m². Rankings use ALAND; exact ties use ascending GEOID. Tables preserve Census-published square miles to three decimals, with conversions based on those values.

Download the official county source ZIP ↗ · Methodology

Common questions

How big is Dorado Municipio?

Dorado Municipio, Puerto Rico has 23.1 square miles (59.9 km²) of land and 30.6 square miles of water, for a total area of 53.8 square miles. It ranks #3182 of 3,222 U.S. county equivalents by land area.

Is Dorado Municipio the largest county in Puerto Rico?

No. Dorado Municipio ranks #67 of 78 in Puerto Rico by land area. The largest is Arecibo Municipio, with 126 square miles of land.

What counties border Dorado Municipio?

Dorado Municipio shares a land border with Vega Alta Municipio, Toa Baja Municipio, and Toa Alta Municipio.

What is the population of Dorado Municipio?

The Census Bureau estimates Dorado Municipio had 35,891 residents on July 1, 2025, ranking #1,330 of 3,222 county equivalents. That is 1,551 people per square mile of land.

What is the county seat of Dorado Municipio?

The county seat of Dorado Municipio is Dorado.

Is Dorado Municipio part of a metropolitan area?

Yes. It is a central county of the San Juan-Bayamón-Caguas, PR Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has 40 county equivalents and 2,024,195 residents.

How many ZIP codes are in Dorado Municipio?

2 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Dorado Municipio, and 2 of them have most of their land inside the county. Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas approximate USPS ZIP Code areas.

How does Dorado Municipio compare with U.S. states?

It has less land than every state. Rhode Island, the smallest, has 44.7 times as much land.

How many acres of land are in Dorado Municipio?

The land measurement converts to approximately 14,811 acres. Including water, total area is approximately 34,408 acres. One square mile equals 640 acres.

Why might another source show a different area?

Check whether it reports land or total area, its Census vintage, and its rounding. Our guide explains how to reconcile county area figures.

Can this establish a property boundary?

No. Statistical measurements and generalized maps do not establish property lines. Consult the relevant local surveying or land-records authority.

Cite this county

Download the complete CSV or JSON dataset