In Costa Rica, a canton is the jurisdiction below a province. Each of Costa Rica's seven provinces are divided into a number of cantons, from 6 for Limon Province to 20 for San Jose Province. The population and size of cantons can also vary greatly, from a few thousand people to hundreds of thousands of people, and from a few square kilometers to thousands of square kilometers. Cantons are roughly equivalent to counties in the United States. Cantons are further divided into districts.
And much like counties in the United States, their borders might not match what people consider to be their natural communities. Some cantons have unusual borders that include disparate regions, including urban and more rural areas, and where Costa Rica's rough topography can throw up barriers across what is in theory one jurisdiction. In practice, people might identify more with a general region than with the specific canton they live in.