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Updates: 

The results of the 2011 census have been released.

Country overview: 

Short name	COSTA RICA
ISO code	CR
FIPS code	CS
Language	Spanish (es)
Time zone	-6
Capital	San José

 

Costa Rica has been an independent country for the whole twentieth century. There have been minor territorial transfers, but the names and capitals of its provinces have lasted the whole century.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Costa Rica
2. Dutch: Costa Rica, Republiek Costa Rica (formal)
3. English: Republic of Costa Rica (formal)
4. Finnish: Costa Rica
5. French: Costa Rica m
6. German: Costa Rica n
7. Icelandic: Kostaríka
8. Italian: Costa Rica f
9. Norwegian: Costa Rica, Republikken Costa Rica (formal)
10. Portuguese: Costa Rica, República f da Costa f Rica (formal)
11. Russian: Республика Коста-Рика (formal)
12. Spanish: Costa Rica, República f de Costa f Rica (formal)
13. Swedish: Costa Rica
14. Turkish: Kosta Rika Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Spanish for rich coast. Columbus thought there was gold to be found there.

Primary subdivisions: 

Costa Rica is divided into seven provincias (provinces).

Province	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Code	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Alajuela	CR.AL	A	CS01	20000	848,146	9,754	3,766	Alajuela
Cartago	CR.CA	C	CS02	30000	490,903	3,125	1,206	Cartago
Guanacaste	CR.GU	G	CS03	50000	326,953	10,141	3,915	Liberia
Heredia	CR.HE	H	CS04	40000	433,677	2,657	1,026	Heredia
Limón	CR.LI	L	CS06	70000	386,862	9,189	3,548	Puerto Limón
Puntarenas	CR.PU	P	CS07	60000	410,929	11,266	4,350	Puntarenas
San José	CR.SJ	SJ	CS08	10000	1,404,242	4,960	1,915	San José
7 provinces					4,301,712	51,090	19,726
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision code. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Code: INEC province code. Population: 2011-05-30 census (source [8]). Cantons: Number of cantons in province.

Postal codes: 

Costa Rica uses five-digit postal codes which are the same as the INEC district codes. This system was adopted on 2007-03-01, replacing a system of four-digit codes which didn't correlate well with the provinces.

Further subdivisions:

See the Cantons of Costa Rica page.

The provinces are subdivided into cantons, which in turn are subdivided into districts.

The National Institute of Statistics and Census (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos) has defined a hierarchical code for the administrative divisions of Costa Rica. Each district has a distinct five-digit code. The first digit represents a province (note: not region), and the province code is that digit followed by four zeros. Likewise, the first three digits of the district code represent a canton, and the canton code ends in two zeros.

Costa Rica is also divided into six regions. I haven't been able to find a direct explanation for the coexistence of regions and provinces. It appears that the provinces are the primary units of local government. The regions seem to be used for certain statistical reports, such as public health. Some region names derive from precolumbian ethnic groups. The regional division listed below comes from source [7], which says that this regionalization of Costa Rica was created by Decree No. 16068, Plan of 1985-02-15. Other sources have slightly different lists of regions. Central is sometimes subdivided into Central Norte, Central Occidental, Central Oriental, and Central Sur.

Region	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Provinces
Brunca	320,863	9,528	3,679	parts of P and SJ
Central	2,064,068	10,669	4,119	C and parts of A, H, and SJ
Chorotega	251,241	10,141	3,915	G and part of A
Huetar Atlántica	294,380	9,189	3,548	L and part of H
Huetar Norte	164,092	7,663	2,959	parts of A and H
Pacífico Central	176,056	3,911	1,510	part of P
Total	3,270,700	51,101	19,730
Population: 1997-07 estimates. Provinces: Provinces corresponding to the region's territory, denoted by their ISO codes.

Territorial extent: 

1. Costa Rica owns Isla del Coco in the Pacific Ocean.
2. Puntarenas includes the southeastern part of Península de Nicoya; Isla Chira and other islands in the Gulf of Nicoya; and Isla del Caño.

The UN LOCODE page  for Costa Rica lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Change history: 

~1990: Name of the capital of Limón changed from Limón to Puerto Limón

Other names of subdivisions: 

Brunca: Pacífico Sur (variant)

Population history:

Province	1898	1911-12-31	1927	1939	1951-05-22	1963-04-01	1973-05-14	1984-06-10	2000-06-26	2011-05-30
Alajuela	53,087	91,707	97,577	134,148	148,850	241,000	326,032	427,962	716,286	848,146
Cartago	35,571	59,968	70,198	96,675	100,725	155,000	204,699	271,671	432,395	490,903
Guanacaste	17,191	33,810	51,142	74,461	88,190	143,000	178,691	195,208	264,238	326,953
Heredia	31,084	42,645	38,407	49,319	51,760	85,000	133,844	197,575	354,732	433,677
Limón	3,447	18,920	32,278	36,649	41,360	68,000	115,143	168,076	339,295	386,862
Puntarenas	8,114	20,054	28,739	40,176	88,168	157,000	218,208	265,883	357,483	410,929
San José	65,261	121,162	153,183	207,769	281,822	488,000	695,163	890,434	1,345,750	1,404,242
Total	213,755	388,266	471,524	639,197	800,875	1,337,000	1,871,780	2,416,809	3,810,179	4,301,712

Sources: 

1. [1] Keltie, J. Scott, ed. The Statesman's Year-Book 1913. Macmillan, London, 1913. Has 1911 population estimates. It says, "There are about 3,500 aborigines (Indians)."
2. [2] Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas, 1951 edition. Has 1927 census data.
3. [3] Demographic Yearbook , 7th Ed. Statistical Office of the United Nations, New York, 1955 (retrieved 2011-08-20). Has 1951 census data.
4. [4] The Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos  site has a search function which allows users to generate customized tables. I used it to get the 1973 census data (retrieved 2011-11-15).
5. [5] Encyclopædia Britannica, 1984 edition. Has 1963 census data.
6. [6] Paxton, John, ed. The Statesman's Year-Book 1988-1989. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1988. Has 1984 census data.
7. [7] Regionalización de Costa Rica. Ministerio de Economía Industria y Comercio. Retrieved 1999-09-15 from http://www.meic.go.cr/inec/cifras.htm (dead link).
8. [8] Cuadro 1 : Población total por sexo, total de viviendas por ocupación y promedio de ocupantes según provincia, cantón y distrito (click on "Resultados" tab), from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos website (retrieved 2013-03-02).
9. [9] La Gaceta No. 100 : División Territorial Administrativa de Costa Rica Según Decreto N° 35213-MG, from the official gazette dated 2009-05-26, p. 109, has areas of cantons (retrieved 2013-03-02).