Vega Alta Municipio area

Vega Alta Municipio, Puerto Rico covers 37.5 square miles: 27.7 square miles of land and 9.771 square miles of water. Its county seat is Vega Alta. An estimated 34,351 people lived there in 2025.

Official Census measurements · GEOID 721432026 Gazetteer · retrieved September 27, 2026
Land area27.7 mi²
Water area9.771 mi²
Population (2025)34,351
People per mi²1,241

County outline

Generalized outline of Vega Alta 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 Vega Alta Municipio is located

Vega Alta 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 73.9% of Vega Alta Municipio’s measured area and water for 26.1%. Its combined area converts to 97 square kilometers or approximately 23,969 acres.

Green: land · blue: water

MeasurementSquare milesSquare kilometersAcres
Land27.6871.69117,715.2
Water9.77125.3076,253.4
Total37.45196.99823,968.6

How Vega Alta Municipio compares

By original Census land area, Vega Alta Municipio ranks #60 of 78 in Puerto Rico and #3173 of 3,222 nationally. National rankings include the 50 states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Its land area is 0.659 times the Puerto Rico county-equivalent median of 42 square miles. It accounts for 0.8% 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 Vega Alta Municipio

The Census Bureau estimates that 34,351 people lived in Vega Alta Municipio on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,364 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #33 of 78 in Puerto Rico. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 35,390, the population has declined by 1,039 (−2.9%), compared with −3.1% for Puerto Rico as a whole.

With 27.7 square miles of land, that is 1,241 people per square mile (479 per km²), placing Vega Alta Municipio #144 nationally for density and #16 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 0.516 acres of land per resident.

Estimated population, 2020–2025 · line scaled to this county’s own range
July 1202020212022202320242025
Estimate35,34035,15334,70234,53434,53534,351
Change—−187−451−168+1−184

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 Vega Alta Municipio

Puerto Rico has no incorporated places below the municipio: Vega Alta 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

Vega Alta 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; Vega Alta Municipio accounts for 1.9% of the land and 1.7% 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

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

006460069200693

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 Vega Alta Municipio

Vega Alta Municipio shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Vega Baja Municipio (45.9 mi²) and the smallest is Dorado Municipio (23.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Vega Alta Municipio forms a block of 205.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.5%.

Map of Vega Alta Municipio and the 5 county equivalents that border it Vega Baja Municipio, Puerto Rico: 45.9 mi² landDorado Municipio, Puerto Rico: 23.1 mi² landCorozal Municipio, Puerto Rico: 42.5 mi² landToa Alta Municipio, Puerto Rico: 27 mi² landMorovis Municipio, Puerto Rico: 38.9 mi² land
Vega Alta 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. Vega AltaCompare
Vega Baja Municipio45.91.7× largerCompare
Corozal Municipio42.51.5× largerCompare
Morovis Municipio38.91.4× largerCompare
Toa Alta Municipio27about the sameCompare
Dorado Municipio23.11.2× smallerCompare

How big is Vega Alta Municipio compared with U.S. states?

Vega Alta Municipio has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 37 times as much. Puerto Rico’s county land could hold about 124 areas the size of Vega Alta Municipio.

Land area: Vega Alta Municipio and the closest-sized states
Vega Alta Municipio27.7 mi²
Rhode Island1,033.9 mi²

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 5.26 miles (8.5 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 Vega Alta Municipio?

Vega Alta Municipio has more land than 49 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

Land area compared with the typical county equivalent
Vega Alta Municipio27.7 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 Vega Alta Municipio at #3,171 nationally by total area, 2 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 26.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 24.9 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 Vega Alta Municipio in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Land rankCounty equivalentLand mi²Comparison
#3172Gurabo Municipio, Puerto Rico27.9Compare
#3173Vega Alta Municipio, Puerto Rico27.7This county
#3174Guaynabo Municipio, Puerto Rico27.6Compare

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 18.436220, -66.336412. 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: 71,690,599 m²; AWATER: 25,305,642 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 Vega Alta Municipio?

Vega Alta Municipio, Puerto Rico has 27.7 square miles (71.7 km²) of land and 9.771 square miles of water, for a total area of 37.5 square miles. It ranks #3173 of 3,222 U.S. county equivalents by land area.

Is Vega Alta Municipio the largest county in Puerto Rico?

No. Vega Alta Municipio ranks #60 of 78 in Puerto Rico by land area. The largest is Arecibo Municipio, with 126 square miles of land.

What counties border Vega Alta Municipio?

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

What is the population of Vega Alta Municipio?

The Census Bureau estimates Vega Alta Municipio had 34,351 residents on July 1, 2025, ranking #1,364 of 3,222 county equivalents. That is 1,241 people per square mile of land.

What is the county seat of Vega Alta Municipio?

The county seat of Vega Alta Municipio is Vega Alta.

Is Vega Alta 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 Vega Alta Municipio?

3 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Vega Alta 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 Vega Alta Municipio compare with U.S. states?

It has less land than every state. Rhode Island, the smallest, has 37.4 times as much land.

How many acres of land are in Vega Alta Municipio?

The land measurement converts to approximately 17,715 acres. Including water, total area is approximately 23,969 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

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