Talk:List of cities in Costa Rica

Redirect?

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 Also, the list of "cities" is both outdated by almost 20 years and incomplete (since there are no official "list of cities" since there are no official cities, the only source must be OR, or some third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)

@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)

@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)

@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)

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)

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)

@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)

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)

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)

@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)

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)

New Merged Table

Canton	City	Province	Population (2011)	Population (2000)	Change	Land area (km²)	Population density	Incorporation date
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