Lepanto District

Lepanto
Lepanto
District
	Lepanto district
	Lepanto Lepanto district location in Costa Rica
	Coordinates: 9°53′17″N 85°07′59″W / 9.8880502°N 85.1330462°W
Country	Costa Rica
Province	Puntarenas
Canton	Puntarenas
Area
• Total	424.74 km2 (163.99 sq mi)
Elevation	6 m (20 ft)
Population (2011)
• Total	9,502
• Density	22/km2 (58/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC−06:00
Postal code	60104

Lepanto is a district of the Puntarenas canton, in the Puntarenas province of Costa Rica.^[1]^[2]

History

During the colonial period the entire Nicoya Peninsula was administratively part of the Partido de Nicoya (nowadays Guanacaste), it was at the beginning of the 20th century that President Alfredo González Flores signed a decree that transferred the administration of Lepanto along with Paquera and Cóbano (towns in the extreme south of the Nicoya peninsula) to the province of Puntarenas. This was due to the fact that at that time it was faster to reach Paquera by sea by boat from Puntarenas, than by the existing land routes to Nicoya. At present there is a certain political impulse in Guanacaste to administratively reincorporate the entire Nicoya peninsula into the province of Guanacaste, arguing that the Inter-American Highway allows rapid land communication with Guanacaste, in addition they argue that the word Guanacaste is internationally associated with tourism and that therefore probably the beaches of the south of the peninsula are more visited by foreign tourists.^[3]

Geography

Lepanto has an area of 424.74 km²^[4] and an elevation of 6 metres.^[1]

Demographics

Historical population
Census	Pop.	±% p.a.
1883	181	—
1892	138	−2.97%
1927	2,142	+8.15%
1950	3,470	+2.12%
1963	10,047	+8.52%
1973	9,928	−0.12%
1984	9,064	−0.82%
2000	8,928	−0.09%
2011	9,502	+0.57%
2022	12,163	+2.27%
Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos^[5] Centro Centroamericano de Población^[6]