37 Facts About Costa Rica

Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, and maritime border with Ecuador to the south of Cocos Island.

Costa Rica was inhabited by indigenous peoples before coming under Spanish rule in the 16th century.

Costa Rica'storians have classified the indigenous people of Costa Rica as belonging to the Intermediate Area, where the peripheries of the Mesoamerican and Andean native cultures overlapped.

Costa Rica was described as "the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in all America" by a Spanish governor in 1719.

The circumstances during this period are believed to have led to many of the idiosyncrasies for which Costa Rica has become known, while concomitantly setting the stage for Costa Rica's development as a more egalitarian society than the rest of its neighbors.

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Costa Rica became a "rural democracy" with no oppressed mestizo or indigenous class.

Since colonial times, Costa Rica has been reluctant to become economically tied with the rest of Central America.

Since the late 19th century Costa Rica has experienced two significant periods of violence.

Since then, Costa Rica has held 15 additional presidential elections, the latest in 2022.

Costa Rica is the first tropical country to have stopped and reversed deforestation; it has successfully restored its forestry and developed an ecosystem service to teach biologists and ecologists about its environmental protection measures.

Costa Rica is recognized in Latin America for the quality of its educational system.

Costa Rica has free trade agreements with many countries, including the US.

Costa Rica has developed a system of payments for environmental services.

Similarly, Costa Rica has a tax on water pollution to penalize businesses and homeowners that dump sewage, agricultural chemicals, and other pollutants into waterways.

Costa Rica is the most-visited nation in the Central American region, with 2.

Costa Rica began reversing deforestation in the 1990s, and they are moving towards using only renewable energy.

Costa Rica is an active member of the United Nations and the Organization of American States.

The main foreign policy objective of Costa Rica is to foster human rights and sustainable development as a way to secure stability and growth.

Costa Rica is a member of the International Criminal Court, without a Bilateral Immunity Agreement of protection for the United States military .

Costa Rica is an observer of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.

Costa Rica has a long-term disagreement with Nicaragua over the San Juan River, which defines the border between the two countries, and Costa Rica's rights of navigation on the river.

On 1 June 2007, Costa Rica broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan, switching recognition to the People's Republic of China.

Costa Rica was the first of the Central American nations to do so.

Costa Rica finished a term on the United Nations Security Council, having been elected for a nonrenewable, two-year term in the 2007 election.

In 2017, Costa Rica signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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Costa Rica took in many refugees from a range of other Latin American countries fleeing civil wars and dictatorships during the 1970s and 1980s, notably from Chile and Argentina, as well as people from El Salvador who fled from guerrillas and government death squads.

Costa Rica is the only modern state in the Americas which currently has Catholicism as its state religion; other countries with state religions are in Europe: Liechtenstein, Monaco, the Vatican City, Malta, Norway, United Kingdom, Denmark, Iceland, and Greece.

Primary language spoken in Costa Rica is Spanish, which features characteristics distinct to the country, a form of Central American Spanish.

Costa Rica is a linguistically diverse country and home to at least five living local indigenous languages spoken by the descendants of pre-Columbian peoples: Maleku, Cabecar, Bribri, Guaymi, and Buglere.

Costa Rica was the point where the Mesoamerican and South American native cultures met.

Costa Rica entered the Summer Olympics for the first time in 1936.

Literacy rate in Costa Rica is approximately 97 percent and English is widely spoken primarily due to Costa Rica's tourism industry.

Costa Rica was ranked 56th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, down from 55th in 2019.

Costa Rica has been cited as Central America's great health success story.

Primary health care facilities in Costa Rica include health clinics, with a general practitioner, nurse, clerk, pharmacist, and a primary health technician.

Costa Rica is among the Latin America countries that have become popular destinations for medical tourism.

Costa Rica is particularly attractive to Americans due to geographic proximity, high quality of medical services, and lower medical costs.