[citation needed] According to Costa Rica's Municipal Code, mayors are elected every four years by the population of the canton.

[4] As of the latest municipal elections in 2024, the National Liberation Party candidate, Roberto Hernán Thompson Chacón, was elected mayor of the canton with 22.73% of the votes, with Sofía Marcela González Barquero and Elías Mateo Chaves Hernández as first and second vice mayors, respectively.

This museum, situated in a building built in 1894-45, which was formerly a prison in the barracks of Alajuela, contains many historical maps, artifacts and portraits of the 1856-1857 campaign.

In 1977 it became the headquarters of the Centro de Investigación para el Perfeccionamiento Técnico (CIPET), an institution of the Ministry of Public Education.

[13][14] Alajuela had a Human Development Index of 0.784 in 2022,[15] the highest score in its province and 19th among all cantons in Costa Rica.