Isabela Municipio area

Isabela Municipio, Puerto Rico covers 91.8 square miles: 55.3 square miles of land and 36.5 square miles of water. Its county seat is Isabela. An estimated 42,938 people lived there in 2025.

Official Census measurements · GEOID 720712026 Gazetteer · retrieved September 27, 2026
Land area55.3 mi²
Water area36.5 mi²
Population (2025)42,938
People per mi²777

County outline

Generalized outline of Isabela 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 Isabela Municipio is located

Isabela 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 60.2% of Isabela Municipio’s measured area and water for 39.8%. Its combined area converts to 237.7 square kilometers or approximately 58,743 acres.

Green: land · blue: water

MeasurementSquare milesSquare kilometersAcres
Land55.254143.10735,362.6
Water36.53294.61723,380.5
Total91.786237.72558,743

How Isabela Municipio compares

By original Census land area, Isabela Municipio ranks #19 of 78 in Puerto Rico and #3121 of 3,222 nationally. National rankings include the 50 states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Its land area is 1.316 times the Puerto Rico county-equivalent median of 42 square miles. It accounts for 1.6% 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 Isabela Municipio

The Census Bureau estimates that 42,938 people lived in Isabela Municipio on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,154 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #18 of 78 in Puerto Rico. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 42,944, the population has declined by 6 (−0%), compared with −3.1% for Puerto Rico as a whole.

With 55.3 square miles of land, that is 777 people per square mile (300 per km²), placing Isabela Municipio #234 nationally for density and #36 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 0.824 acres of land per resident.

Estimated population, 2020–2025 · line scaled to this county’s own range
July 1202020212022202320242025
Estimate42,93642,96042,69442,70442,96142,938
Change—+24−266+10+257−23

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 Isabela Municipio

Puerto Rico has no incorporated places below the municipio: Isabela 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

Isabela Municipio is a central county of the Aguadilla, PR Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 7 county equivalents have 250,088 residents on 297.1 square miles of land; Isabela Municipio accounts for 18.6% of the land and 17.2% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #387 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #199 by population. It belongs to the Mayagüez-Aguadilla, PR Combined Statistical Area.

County equivalentPopulation 2025Land mi²
Aguadilla Municipio53,21936.5
Isabela Municipio42,93855.3
San Sebastián Municipio39,01970.5
Moca Municipio37,56250.4
Aguada Municipio37,31930.8
Añasco Municipio24,44939.3
Rincón Municipio15,58214.3

ZIP codes

3 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Isabela Municipio; 1 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

006620067800685

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Isabela Municipio

Isabela Municipio shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is San Sebastián Municipio (70.5 mi²) and the smallest is Quebradillas Municipio (22.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Isabela Municipio forms a block of 235.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 23.5%.

Map of Isabela Municipio and the 4 county equivalents that border it Quebradillas Municipio, Puerto Rico: 22.7 mi² landSan Sebastián Municipio, Puerto Rico: 70.5 mi² landMoca Municipio, Puerto Rico: 50.4 mi² landAguadilla Municipio, Puerto Rico: 36.5 mi² land
Isabela 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. IsabelaCompare
San Sebastián Municipio70.51.3× largerCompare
Moca Municipio50.41.1× smallerCompare
Aguadilla Municipio36.51.5× smallerCompare
Quebradillas Municipio22.72.4× smallerCompare

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

Isabela Municipio has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 19 times as much. Puerto Rico’s county land could hold about 62 areas the size of Isabela Municipio.

Land area: Isabela Municipio and the closest-sized states
Isabela Municipio55.3 mi²
Rhode Island1,033.9 mi²

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 7.43 miles (12 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 Isabela Municipio?

Isabela Municipio has more land than 101 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

Land area compared with the typical county equivalent
Isabela Municipio55.3 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 Isabela Municipio at #3,115 nationally by total area, 6 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 39.8%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 38.6 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 Isabela Municipio in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Land rankCounty equivalentLand mi²Comparison
#3120Richmond County, New York57.5Compare
#3121Isabela Municipio, Puerto Rico55.3This county
#3122Yabucoa Municipio, Puerto Rico55.2Compare

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 18.483997, -67.013979. 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: 143,107,203 m²; AWATER: 94,618,625 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 Isabela Municipio?

Isabela Municipio, Puerto Rico has 55.3 square miles (143.1 km²) of land and 36.5 square miles of water, for a total area of 91.8 square miles. It ranks #3121 of 3,222 U.S. county equivalents by land area.

Is Isabela Municipio the largest county in Puerto Rico?

No. Isabela Municipio ranks #19 of 78 in Puerto Rico by land area. The largest is Arecibo Municipio, with 126 square miles of land.

What counties border Isabela Municipio?

Isabela Municipio shares a land border with Quebradillas Municipio, San Sebastián Municipio, Moca Municipio, and Aguadilla Municipio.

What is the population of Isabela Municipio?

The Census Bureau estimates Isabela Municipio had 42,938 residents on July 1, 2025, ranking #1,154 of 3,222 county equivalents. That is 777 people per square mile of land.

What is the county seat of Isabela Municipio?

The county seat of Isabela Municipio is Isabela.

Is Isabela Municipio part of a metropolitan area?

Yes. It is a central county of the Aguadilla, PR Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has 7 county equivalents and 250,088 residents.

How many ZIP codes are in Isabela Municipio?

3 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Isabela Municipio, and 1 of them have most of their land inside the county. Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas approximate USPS ZIP Code areas.

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

It has less land than every state. Rhode Island, the smallest, has 18.7 times as much land.

How many acres of land are in Isabela Municipio?

The land measurement converts to approximately 35,363 acres. Including water, total area is approximately 58,743 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