Dunkin’ Dense or Donut Drought? We Found the Concentration of Dunkin’ in Every Boston Neighborhood

Your criteria for your next apartment likely includes proximity to a grocery store, public transit, and entertainment… But what about your favorite coffee chain? Now, thanks to our new Dunkin’ Score, every apartment listing in Boston on our site will tell you just how close you’ll be to New England’s favorite cup of iced coffee.

We know it feels like there’s a Dunkin’ on every corner in the Boston area, but we wanted to find out once and for all where you can find the most storefronts and where you’ll be suffering from a Dunkin’ drought.

Click here to see the full list of Dunkin' Scores for every neighborhood in Boston.

You’ll find the most Dunkin’ locations of any neighborhood right in the city’s center. There are a total of 16 Dunkin’ locations within the boundaries of Downtown Boston — with seven located within about two blocks of each other. The highest concentration of Dunkin’s in Boston is found between Downtown Crossing, Government Center, and the Financial District — not surprising given the mass of foot traffic these areas see from tourists and office workers alike.

And if you were wondering which building in Massachusetts shows the most Dunkin’ Donuts love… That would be Logan Airport. As far as counts go, Downtown and East Boston are tied for the most Dunkin’ locations — but the spread is not equal. In Eastie, 10 of the 16 Dunkin’ stores are located inside of the airport, resulting in a much lower concentration of locations across the neighborhood. The median Dunkin’ Score across the area of Downtown an 8.39, while in East Boston it comes in much lower at only a 4.49. (Fun fact: The airport is home to two of the only four Dunkin’ locations in Boston that are open 24 hours a day. The only others are in South Boston and the West End.)

Dorchester and the Fenway have the next highest Dunkin’ counts of any neighborhood at 12 and 8 storefronts, respectively — but since Dorchester is a much larger neighborhood (the largest in Boston, in fact) its concentration is lower. When looking at the median Dunkin’ Score across the entire area, Dorchester comes in at 3.86 and Fenway is a 6.73.

Click here to see the full list of Dunkin' Scores for every neighborhood in Boston.

The more suburban and spread out a neighborhood is, the less Dunkin’ locations you’ll find within a close radius of one another — except for in the case of the North End, which is condensed and walkable but has zero Dunkin’ Donut shops within its bounds. There, you’ll need to stop by one of the many authentic Italian cafes for an espresso and cannoli.

Otherwise, in West Roxbury, a pocket of suburbia still within the city limits of Boston, there are only three Dunkin’ stores — resulting in a median Dunkin’ Score of 2.10 across the area. (For reference, there are three Dunkin’ locations in Chinatown and three in Back Bay — much smaller neighborhoods than West Roxbury, both adjacent to Downtown.) Bordering Hyde Park, Roslindale, and Jamaica Plain do have three Dunkin’s each, however, so a doughnut in these areas is never more than a short drive away despite their lower scores. 

There’s nothing better than stopping by Dunks for a coffee and bagel breakfast sandwich on your way to work or school. That’s why we decided to find out which T Stops are the closest to a Dunkin’ location.

If you commute to or from the city on the Orange Line, you’re in luck because there’s a Dunkin’ inside Back Bay Station — making it the closest T Stop to a Dunkin’. The next best T stop for getting your Dunkin’ fix is Maverick on the Blue Line, where the closest storefront is directly across the street, followed by the Beachmont stop at No. 3 in Revere. In fact, the Blue Line actually has the second highest average Dunkin’ Score when looking across all of its stops (6.68) — despite taking its passengers into relative suburbia in Eastie and Revere.

The E Line on the Green Line has the No. 1 highest average Dunkin’ Score across all of its T stops (6.78) — with Government Center, North Station, and Riverway all having a Dunkin’ within a roughly 2-minute walk from the station.

The D Line on the Green Line has the lowest average Dunkin’ Score across all of its stops (5.94). The highest Dunkin’ Scores at T stops exclusive to the D Line are found at Newton Centre (7.98) and Union Square (7.95) stations, about a 5-minute walk away.

Below is a list of the Dunkin’ Score of every neighborhood in Boston.

The ApartmentAdvisor Dunkin’ Score, now available on every apartment listing in Boston, calculates how close an apartment is to the nearest Dunkin’ locations. Listings that have multiple Dunkin’ locations within a short walk have higher Dunkin’ Scores, while listings that are further away or have fewer Dunkin’ locations have lower scores. For example, if a listing has two Dunkin’ locations that are 1 mile away, then the score would be the same as a listing with one Dunkin’ location that is 0.75 miles away. We used an ultimate threshold of 10 miles and limited our study to the city limits of Boston (so, it does not include neighboring cities like Somerville, Cambridge, or Brookline.) 

Listings data came from ApartmentAdvisor. The Dunkin’ Donuts location data came from Dunkin’. 

Want to make sure you live close to a Dunkin’ location? It’s time to start a search on our site! Put in your criteria on our search page, and you will be able to the Dunkin’ Score on every apartment listing on our site. Even better, when you submit a contact form on any listing on our site, you’ll be connected with our team — who will make the rest of your apartment hunt a breeze. You can learn more about how we’re reinventing renting here.