Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida incorporated in May 1925. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 74,764; the 2006 population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 86,396. However, the majority of the people under the postal address of Boca Raton, of about 200,000 in total, are not actual residents of municipal Boca Raton. This is due to the county's stringent annexation laws passed in 2004. Estimated that on any given day, there are roughly 350,000 people in the city itself.
By population and land mass, Boca Raton is the largest city between West Palm Beach and Pompano Beach, Broward County.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city
has a total area of 75.4 km² (29.1 mi²). 70.4 km² (27.2 mi²) of it is land and 5.0 km² (1.9 mi²) of it (6.63%) is water. Boca Raton is a 'principal city' (as
defined by the Census Bureau) of the South Florida metropolitan area. Like most south Florida cities, Boca Raton has a water table that does not permit
building basements, but there are several high points in the city, such as 4th Avenue which is aptly named "High Street." The highest point in this area
is the guard shack at Camino Gardens, which is 24 ft (7.3 m) above sea level. The Boca Raton Hotel's Beach Club rests at 23 ft (7.0 m) above sea
level.
Several small tunnels run under roads in Boca, but the roads are built up several feet at these locations, or are
located on dunes. Several of these tunnels are under State Road A1A at Spanish River Park, from the west side of the road where parking is available to
beachgoers, to the east side of the road, which is where the beach is located. A1A is already higher than the surrounding land here due to sand dunes
formed by erosion and other natural features.
