The Greater Metropolitan Area of

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

, ( es, Gran Área Metropolitana, GAM) is the largest

urban agglomeration An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities ...

, comprising areas of high population density surrounding the capital, San José, which geographically corresponds to the Central Valley and extended to include the Guarco Valley, where some of the cantons of the

Cartago province Cartago (), which means Carthage in Spanish, is a province of central Costa Rica. It is one of the smallest provinces, however probably the richest of the Spanish Colonial era sites and traditions. Geography It is located in the central part ...

are located. The proper definition and delimitation corresponds to the

National Institute of Statistics and Census of Costa Rica The National Institute of Statistics and Census of Costa Rica (''Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos de Costa Rica'', or ''INEC'', in Spanish) is the governmental institution entrusted with the running of censuses and official surveys in t ...

(INEC) and could vary over time. According to the last census, the GAM has a population of 3.1 million inhabitants (about 60% of the population) in an area of 2,044 km² (just around 3.84% of the area Costa Rica ).

General definition

Since

colonial times The ''Colonial Times'' was a newspaper in what is now the Australian state of Tasmania. It was established as the ''Colonial Times, and Tasmanian Advertiser'' in 1825 in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colon ...

, Costa Rica's Central Valley houses a major share of the population in less than a tenth of the country's total area. On this

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ha ...

lies three of the seven provincial seats, including the capital, San José. Throughout the years a strong immigration stream spurred by the uneven economic opportunities and a growing job demand helped to expand this urban cores and to develop new residential areas in former agricultural lands. The Greater Metropolitan Area has an area of composed of the Central Valley and Guarco Valley, partially covering the four provinces of San José, Alajuela, Cartago and Heredia, and the following cantons (some partially by including only some of their districts): *

San José province San José () is a province of Costa Rica. It is located in the central part of the country, and borders (clockwise beginning in the north) the provinces of Alajuela, Heredia, Limón, Cartago and Puntarenas. The provincial and national capital ...

(13 cantons): ** San José ** Escazú **

Desamparados Desamparados is a district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, ...

** Aserrí **

Mora Mora may refer to: People * Mora (surname) Places Sweden * Mora, Säter, Sweden * Mora, Sweden, the seat of Mora Municipality * Mora Municipality, Sweden United States * Mora, Louisiana, an unincorporated community * Mora, Minnesota, a city * M ...

** Goicoechea ** Santa Ana ** Alajuelita **

Vázquez de Coronado Vázquez (also spelled Vásquez, Vasques), in non-Spanish-speaking countries often spelled as Vazquez or Vasquez, is an originally Galician language, Galician surname, in use not only in Galicia (Spain), Galicia but all over the Spanish-speaking wo ...

Tibás Tibás is the thirteenth canton in the province of San José in Costa Rica. The head city of the canton is San Juan. History Tibás was created on 26 June 1914 by decree 31. It was formerly known as San Juan del Murciélago and was meant to be ...

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The me ...

** Montes de Oca **

Curridabat Curridabat is a district of the Curridabat canton, in the San José province of Costa Rica. Geography Curridabat has an area of km2 and an elevation of metres. It is situated on the eastern border of the San José capital city, north of ...

Alajuela province Alajuela () is a province of Costa Rica. It is located in the north-central part of the country, bordering Nicaragua to the north. It also borders the provinces of Heredia to the east, San José to the south, Puntarenas to the southwest and ...

(3 cantons): **

Alajuela Alajuela () is a district in the Alajuela canton of the Alajuela Province of Costa Rica. As the seat of the Municipality of Alajuela canton, it is awarded the status of city. By virtue of being the city of the first canton of the province, it i ...

Atenas Atenas () is a district of the Atenas canton, in the Alajuela province of Costa Rica. Its urban area is referred as Atenas city. Toponymy Its name means Athens ''(Αθήνα)'', the capital of Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', offici ...

** Poás *

(6 cantons): ** Cartago ** Paraíso ** La Unión ** Alvarado ** Oreamuno ** El Guarco *

Heredia province Heredia () is a province of Costa Rica. It is in the north-central part of the country. As a result, the province covers areas as diverse as the agriculture-rich Northern plains to the more metropolitan areas such as the city of Heredia in the C ...

(9 cantons): ** Heredia **

Barva Barva is a district of the Barva canton, in the Heredia province of Costa Rica. The city is known for having a nice mix of rural and metropolitan landscape. Toponymy The name comes from Barvac or Barvak a cacique of the area around 1569, which ...

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 (Distrito Nacional) , websi ...

** Santa Bárbara ** San Rafael ** San Isidro ** Belén **

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Including the Komodo Islands off its west coast (but excluding the Solor Archipelago to the east of Flores), the land area is 15,530.58 km2, and th ...

** San Pablo

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:San Jose metropolitan area Metropolitan areas of Costa Rica San José, Costa Rica San José (canton) Geography of San José Province