According to Article 168[1] of the Constitution of Costa Rica, the political divisions are officially classified into 3 tiers of sub-national entities.
The article states, "Para los efectos de la Administración Pública el territorio nacional se divide en provincias, éstas en cantones y los cantones en distritos.", which loosely translates into English as "For Public Administration purposes, the national territory is divided into provinces, these into cantons and cantons into districts." The Republic of Costa Rica consists of 7 provinces (provincias), 81 cantons (cantones), and 473 districts (districtos).[2]