Administrative divisions of Costa Rica

According to the Political Constitution of Costa Rica of 1949, in article 168, the territorial division of Costa Rica is organized by law into three types of subnational entity:

For the purposes of the Public Administration, the national territory is divided into provinces, these in cantons and cantons in districts.

Costa Rica is divided into:

All entities are numbered, the provinces get 1 digit, the cantons 3 digit with the first being the number of the province, the districts get 5 digits with the first 3 being the numbers of the canton.

The district numbers are also used as postal codes.

With the establishment of the republic and the declaration of Costa Rica as "free, sovereign and independent republic," the Political Constitution of the Reformed Costa Rica of 1848 was approved on November 30 Of that year, and according to Law No. 36 of December 7 of 1848, the denominations of province, canton & district. According to the aforementioned law, the following provinces were created:

This law classified Puntarenas as county, a category that is now in disuse. Legislative Decree No. 10 of September 17, 1858 gives Puntarenas the title of province.

Decree No. 27 of June 6, 1870 created the "County of Limón" from the easternmost territory of the Province of Carthage, and allowed the establishment of a town hall. It would not be until 1902, under Legislative Decree No. 59 of August 1 that it was constituted in the seventh and last of the provinces that comprise the national territory.

From 1848 to 1980 the number of cantons in the country has gone from 10 to 82. The last canton to be constituted is the Rio Cuarto ancient district of Greece province of Alajuela. The districts, on the other hand, have experienced greater flexibility in their constitution process, so their numbers are constantly changing. For example, there are now 470 districts, when in 2000, when the population census was conducted the districts were 463.

Politically and administratively, Costa Rica is made up of 7 provinces:

The concept of City Hall or City Council falls to the second-level sub-national entity (the cantons), governed by a mayor elected every four years in general elections, as well as a Municipal Council (Municipal regime of Costa Rica). According to the Political Constitution, article 169:

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