General Information

• Surface: 50.000 square kilometers
• Population: 3,896,092 inhabitants (as of July 2003)
• Limits: North: Nicaragua. Southwest: Panama. East: Caribbean Sea. West: Pacific Ocean.
• Currency: Colon
• Climate: Tropical and subtropical; dry season from December to April, rainy season from May to November.
• Government type: Democratic republic
• Language: Spanish

Additional Information

Costa Rica is the richest and more politically stable Latin American country. The government controls the building and management of the roads and the following utilities: road police, communications, water and electricity. However, the current government is showing strong signals of freeing.

The 1949 “political constitution” made voting legal for women and black people. Furthermore, the army was dismantled, thus giving Costa Rica the status of being “the only country without an army”. In 1987, president Oscar Arias was awarded the Peace Nobel Prize, due to his efforts of spreading peace across the rest of the Central American land.

The Central Valley, in which the capital city, San José is located, rests at 1.165 meters above sea level. Due to its location and almost constant temperature of 20°C (68 Fahrenheit), its climate is considered the healthiest one in the planet, according to NASA studies.

Education was declared free and mandatory in 1843. Due to the country’s high educational level, it is considered the most politically stable one in Latin America. The national economy sector is made up of services (58%), industry (26%) and agriculture (16%).