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

History

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

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

Related pages

• Cantons of Costa Rica