Talk:List of cities in Costa Rica

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Redirect?[edit]

I'm wondering if this list should be redirected to Cantons of Costa Rica. Costa Rica does not have "cities" but has cantons and districts. It's like saying "provinces" for the USA which would surely get redirected to "states" or deleted outright. Also, the list of "cities" is both outdated by almost 20 years and incomplete (since there are no official "list of cities" since there are no official cities, the only source must be OR, or some third party like citypopulations.de). This list runs afoul of WP:OR, since it is an arbitrary list from a 3rd party website. I tried to redirect but was reverted, so I will ask if anyone does not think this list is original research. Mattximus (talk) 16:28, 24 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Mattximus: I agree and will work on that in the future. By the División Territorial Administrativa the head district of each canton is awarded automatically the status of city, irregardless of population density or other factors, which is kind of ridiculous for some districts, but well.... is the official designation, but with the exception of San José canton, where the whole canton except a small section in a district, is identified as a city (I have added that information this week to both English and Spanish wikis, somebody even draw up map limits according to imaginary criteria!). This is something that is seldom known, but that should be included in Wikipedia ASAP. This list of cities is a disaster, seems like an opinionated list by somebody's very personal criteria for city. Roqz (talk) 03:27, 30 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Roqz:That is interesting, and I agree, but would you agree to a redirect to the much better Cantons of Costa Rica, which at the very least is more complete and up to date? It seems like a waste of time to duplicate efforts on this page and the other page. Mattximus (talk) 16:28, 30 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Mattximus: Yes, I agree on that, we can safely redirect this page there and what can be done is to add a column for 'head district (city)' or the like in the main table of that article, and add each district as per the División Territorial Administrativa. Also, I need to check on the current legal status of 'provincial capital', I think those were deprecated in the 1990s when the Gobernador Provincial (province major?) were eliminated, I think that not even for ceremonial purposes there is a capital of the province figure at the moment, but the title still lingers in the collective imagination, I'm not really sure. Nowadays provinces as administrative division are an historic/social-identity relic, it now starts at the canton level, so there is no point in a capital for a province, that would be the logical way to go... I'll ask some lawyer friends about that, the figure might still exist after all. Roqz (talk) 16:59, 30 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
This juridical opinion document of 2013, on whether the municipalities can ask for a liquor license (hehe!), states that the province capital was where, until 1998 when eliminated, the province governor resided or the canton considered as such due to population, social, economic or historical reasons. No legal framework or designation exists, and therefore the Procuraduría de la República (country general attorney) is in the impossibility to emit criteria on what (or which) a provincial or cantonal capital is. Seems that those figures are just collective opinions after all? Roqz (talk) 17:32, 30 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Sounds good! Looking at the individual pages, it appears the word "Canton capital" is used instead of "head district (city)", would that be a suitable column header? Mattximus (talk) 17:42, 30 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Mattximus: I'm not sure about using the term canton capital, seems that administrative/head city would be proper term, and each individual page should be updated for that nomenclature/definition as well (That's part of what I was talking about "will be working on that!" hehe). A lawyer friend just replied, that in fact the División Territorial Administrativa (DTA) does still as of 2019 assign a province capital as the "city which is in the first canton of the province". and in the same glossary there is the city definition for Costa Rica, a rough translation: City: Urban area, seat of the more relevant political and administrative authorities, that when by a canton has been created by an approved law, will hold the administrative control of the whole canton territory (Law 4366, Administrative Territorial Division, of 1969). The city title will be awarded only to the administrative centers of the cantons, by means of where the municipality is located, therefore the only requisite to declare a territory as a city, is that this be a political-administrative center with those characteristics. So maybe just adding a 'City' column would be enough? With a proper paragraph and reference to the current DTA law (N°41548-MGP, 28 January 2019). I will have a coffee with my friend to settle this, and then will work toward updating the 82 canton pages with this information. Phew! BTW, you can check the above PDF and look for "Ciudad" in each canton to add to this column and the proper link to the district is in List of districts of Costa Rica, where by postal code maybe each of the codes ending in ---01 would be the head city. But needs to be corroborated with the DTA. Roqz (talk) 18:51, 30 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, just noticed that by those legal definitions, the green shaded province capital will need to be the district/head-city in the city column as well! It also works in the special case of San José, that it has its seat city made up by all the districts, I added that link to the column too. I think the shade can be moved there as well. Roqz (talk) 19:07, 30 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
That sounds good as well. I think we can just directly quote that passage that you wrote about the definition of city in the body of the text to explain. Let's make any changes to the table here, then when we redirect the table will be complete. Mattximus (talk) 13:25, 1 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Mattximus: I finished filling up the table, there are four things to take into account:

  • Just as San José city that is made up by several districts, Puntarenas city and Cartago city have those conditions, the target articles are not very clear on that, I tried to fix up Puntarenas, but I think a new Puntarenas (district) is required just for the district. Cartago is made up of two districts with different names, so, is already done. I updated Administrative_divisions_of_Costa_Rica#Other_subdivisions with the details.
  • In the table, Valverde Vega canton required to be updated to Sarchí, the change in name is recent. Done!
  • There are three "cities" that are not whole districts... The DTA assigns the cities to the renown suburban area of the district and not the whole district... My lawyer friend will look into that next week. Our motivation is that we have children of school age in the family and they are submitting completely wrong homework using Wikipedia, I noticed that in a presentation, so, here we are.
  • Noticed a few missing diacritics in the list of districts and their pages, will move those to the proper name.

Great work! Roqz (talk) 19:46, 2 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Wow, this is great! I was going to finish the list myself but found you had completed it. I think it's safe to move to the main page, then redirect this one. I will copy over this discussion as well. I think you brought up some great points that we should also incorporate into the lead of the article as well. Mattximus (talk) 13:41, 3 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

New Merged Table[edit]

Canton City[1] Province Population
(2011)[2] 		Population
(2000)[3] 		Change[2][3] Land area (km²)[4] Population density Incorporation date[4]
San José‡ San José San José 288,054 309,672 −7.0% 44.62 6,455.7/km2 1848
Escazú Escazú San José 56,509 52,372 +7.9% 34.49 1,638.4/km2 1848
Desamparados Desamparados San José 208,411 193,478 +7.7% 118.26 1,762.3/km2 1862
Puriscal Santiago San José 33,004 29,407 +12.2% 553.66 59.6/km2 1868
Tarrazú San Marcos San José 16,280 14,160 +15.0% 297.50 54.7/km2 1868
Aserrí Aserrí San José 57,892 49,319 +17.4% 167.10 346.5/km2 1882
Mora Ciudad Colón San José 26,294 21,666 +21.4% 162.04 162.3/km2 1883
Goicoechea Guadalupe San José 115,084 117,532 −2.1% 31.50 3,653.5/km2 1891
Santa Ana Santa Ana San José 49,123 34,507 +42.4% 61.42 799.8/km2 1907
Alajuelita Alajuelita San José 77,603 70,297 +10.4% 21.17 3,665.7/km2 1909
Vásquez de Coronado San Isidro San José 60,486 55,585 +8.8% 222.20 272.2/km2 1910
Acosta San Ignacio San José 20,209 18,661 +8.3% 342.24 59.0/km2 1910
Tibás San Juan San José 64,842 72,074 −10.0% 8.15 7,956.1/km2 1914
Moravia San Vicente San José 56,919 50,419 +12.9% 28.62 1,988.8/km2 1914
Montes de Oca San Pedro San José 49,132 50,433 −2.6% 15.16 3,240.9/km2 1915
Turrubares San Pablo San José 5,512 4,877 +13.0% 415.29 13.3/km2 1920
Dota Santa María San José 6,948 6,519 +6.6% 400.22 17.4/km2 1925
Curridabat Curridabat San José 65,206 60,889 +7.1% 15.95 4,088.2/km2 1929
Pérez Zeledón San Isidro de El General San José 134,534 122,187 +10.1% 1,905.51 70.6/km2 1931
León Cortés Castro San Pablo San José 12,200 11,696 +4.3% 120.80 101.0/km2 1961
Alajuela† Alajuela Alajuela 254,886 222,853 +14.4% 758.32 336.1/km2 1848
San Ramón San Ramón Alajuela 80,566 67,975 +18.5% 1,018.64 79.1/km2 1856
Grecia Grecia Alajuela 76,898 65,119 +18.1% 395.72 194.3/km2 1848
San Mateo San Mateo Alajuela 6,136 5,343 +14.8% 125.90 48.7/km2 1868
Atenas Atenas Alajuela 25,460 22,479 +13.3% 127.19 200.2/km2 1868
Naranjo Naranjo Alajuela 42,713 37,602 +13.6% 126.62 337.3/km2 1886
Palmares Palmares Alajuela 34,716 29,766 +16.6% 38.06 912.1/km2 1888
Poás San Pedro Alajuela 29,199 24,764 +17.9% 73.84 395.4/km2 1901
Orotina Orotina Alajuela 20,341 15,705 +29.5% 141.92 143.3/km2 1908
San Carlos Quesada Alajuela 163,745 127,140 +28.8% 3,347.98 48.9/km2 1911
Zarcero Zarcero Alajuela 12,205 10,845 +12.5% 155.13 78.7/km2 1915
Sarchí Sarchí Norte Alajuela 18,085 16,239 +11.4% 120.25 150.4/km2 1949
Upala Upala Alajuela 43,953 37,679 +16.7% 1,580.67 27.8/km2 1970
Los Chiles Los Chiles Alajuela 23,735 19,732 +20.3% 1,358.86 17.5/km2 1970
Guatuso San Rafael Alajuela 15,508 13,045 +18.9% 758.32 20.5/km2 1970
Río Cuarto Río Cuarto Alajuela 11,074 11,074 0.0% 254.20 43.6/km2 2017
Cartago† Cartago Cartago 147,898 132,057 +12.0% 287.77 513.9/km2 1848
Paraíso Paraíso Cartago 57,743 52,393 +10.2% 411.91 140.2/km2 1848
La Unión Tres Ríos Cartago 99,399 80,279 +23.8% 44.83 2,217.2/km2 1848
Jiménez Juan Viñas Cartago 14,669 14,046 +4.4% 286.43 51.2/km2 1903
Turrialba Turrialba Cartago 69,616 68,510 +1.6% 1,642.67 42.4/km2 1903
Alvarado Pacayas Cartago 14,312 12,290 +16.5% 81.06 176.6/km2 1908
Oreamuno San Rafael Cartago 45,473 39,032 +16.5% 202.31 224.8/km2 1914
El Guarco El Tejar Cartago 41,793 33,788 +23.7% 167.69 249.2/km2 1939
Heredia† Heredia Heredia 123,616 103,894 +19.0% 282.60 437.4/km2 1848
Barva Barva Heredia 40,660 32,440 +25.3% 53.80 755.8/km2 1848
Santo Domingo Santo Domingo Heredia 40,072 34,748 +15.3% 24.84 1,613.2/km2 1869
Santa Bárbara Santa Bárbara Heredia 36,243 29,181 +24.2% 53.21 681.1/km2 1882
San Rafael San Rafael Heredia 45,965 37,293 +23.3% 48.39 949.9/km2 1885
San Isidro San Isidro Heredia 20,633 16,056 +28.5% 26.96 765.3/km2 1905
Belén San Antonio Heredia 21,633 19,834 +9.1% 12.15 1,780.5/km2 1907
Flores San Joaquín Heredia 20,037 15,038 +33.2% 6.96 2,878.9/km2 1915
San Pablo San Pablo Heredia 27,671 20,813 +33.0% 7.53 3,674.8/km2 1961
Sarapiquí Puerto Viejo Heredia 57,147 45,435 +25.8% 2,140.54 26.7/km2 1970
Liberia† Liberia Guanacaste 62,987 46,703 +34.9% 1,436.47 43.8/km2 1848
Nicoya Nicoya Guanacaste 50,825 42,189 +20.5% 1,333.68 38.1/km2 1848
Santa Cruz Santa Cruz Guanacaste 55,104 40,821 +35.0% 1,312.27 42.0/km2 1848
Bagaces Bagaces Guanacaste 19,536 15,972 +22.3% 1,273.49 15.3/km2 1848
Carrillo Filadelfia Guanacaste 37,122 27,306 +35.9% 577.54 64.3/km2 1877
Cañas Cañas Guanacaste 26,201 24,076 +8.8% 682.20 38.4/km2 1878
Abangares Las Juntas Guanacaste 18,039 16,276 +10.8% 675.76 26.7/km2 1915
Tilarán Tilarán Guanacaste 19,640 17,871 +9.9% 638.39 30.8/km2 1923
Nandayure Carmona Guanacaste 11,121 9,985 +11.4% 565.59 19.7/km2 1961
La Cruz La Cruz Guanacaste 19,181 16,505 +16.2% 1,383.90 13.9/km2 1969
Hojancha Hojancha Guanacaste 7,197 6,534 +10.1% 261.42 27.5/km2 1971
Puntarenas† Puntarenas Puntarenas 115,019 102,504 +12.2% 1,842.33 62.4/km2 1862
Esparza Esparza (Espíritu Santo district) Puntarenas 28,644 23,963 +19.5% 216.80 132.1/km2 1848
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Puntarenas 45,244 40,139 +12.7% 2,384.22 19.0/km2 1914
Montes de Oro Miramar Puntarenas 12,950 11,159 +16.0% 244.76 52.9/km2 1915
Osa Puerto Cortés Puntarenas 29,433 25,861 +13.8% 1,930.24 15.2/km2 1940
Quepos Quepos Puntarenas 26,861 20,188 +33.1% 543.77 49.4/km2 1948
Golfito Golfito Puntarenas 39,150 33,823 +15.7% 1,753.96 22.3/km2 1949
Coto Brus San Vito Puntarenas 38,453 40,082 −4.1% 933.91 41.2/km2 1965
Parrita Parrita Puntarenas 16,115 12,112 +33.0% 478.79 33.7/km2 1971
Corredores Ciudad Neily (Corredor district) Puntarenas 41,831 37,274 +12.2% 620.60 67.4/km2 1973
Garabito Jacó Puntarenas 17,229 10,378 +66.0% 316.31 54.5/km2 1980
Limón† Limón Limón 94,415 89,933 +5.0% 1,765.79 53.5/km2 1909
Pococí Guápiles Limón 125,962 103,121 +22.1% 2,403.49 52.4/km2 1911
Siquirres Siquirres Limón 56,786 52,409 +8.4% 860.19 66.0/km2 1911
Talamanca Bribrí (Bratsi district) Limón 30,712 25,857 +18.8% 2,809.93 10.9/km2 1969
Matina Matina Limón 37,721 33,096 +14.0% 772.64 48.8/km2 1969
Guácimo Guácimo Limón 41,266 34,879 +18.3% 576.48 71.6/km2 1971
Costa Rica 4,301,712 3,810,179 +12.9% 51,100 84.2/km2
  1. ^ http://www.pgrweb.go.cr/scij/Busqueda/Normativa/Normas/nrm_texto_completo.aspx?param1=NRTC&nValor1=1&nValor2=88416&nValor3=115607&strTipM=TC
  2. ^ a b "Población total por zona y sexo, según provincia, cantón y distrito" [Total population by area and sex, province, county and district] (in Spanish). Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos. 2011. Archived from the original (XLS) on March 5, 2016. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Población total por zona y sexo, según provincia, cantón y distrito" [Total population by area and sex, province, county and district] (in Spanish). Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos. 2000. Archived from the original (XLS) on May 5, 2016. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference admindivisions was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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