Provinces of Costa Rica

first level administrative subdivision in Costa Rica

The provinces (Spanish: provincias) are administrative parts of Costa Rica as in other countries.

The Constitution of Costa Rica says, in its Article 168, "For Public Administration purposes, the national territory is divided into provinces, these into cantons and cantons into districts."[1]

As of 2016, there are 7 provinces (provincias), 81 cantons (cantones), and 473 districts (districtos).[2]

History

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The Law No. 36 of 7 December 1848 divided the country, for the first time, in provinces, cantons and districts, and created 6 provinces:

  1. San José
  2. Alajuela
  3. Cartago
  4. Heredia
  5. Guanacaste

The law made Puntarenas as comarca, an old category that does not exist any more. Puntarenas was made a province in 1858. In 1870, Limón was made a comarca with the eastern part of the Cartago province; in 1902, Limón was made a province.

List of provinces

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The seven provinces of Costa Rica
Flag Province Map ISO 3166-2 Capital Area[2]
(km2)
Population[2]
(2011)
Density
  San José   CR-SJ San José 4,965.90 1,404,242 282.8
  Alajuela   CR-A Alajuela 9,757.53 848,146 86.9
  Cartago   CR-C Cartago 3,124.67 490,903 157.1
  Heredia   CR-H Heredia 2,656.98 433,677 163.2
  Guanacaste   CR-G Liberia 10,140.71 326,953 32.2
  Puntarenas   CR-P Puntarenas 11,265.69 410,929 36.5
  Limón   CR-L Puerto Limón 9,188.52 386,862 42.1
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References

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  1. "CONSTITUCION POLITICA DE LA REPUBLICA DE COSTA RICA 1949". constitution.org. Archived from the original on 17 June 2017. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Anuario Estadístico 2012 - 2013" (PDF) (in Spanish). San José, Costa Rica: Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INEC). June 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 November 2016. Retrieved 18 December 2016.