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Costa Rica Facts

Official name: Republic of Costa Rica

Capital city: San Jose

Population: 4, 401, 849 inhabitants

Language: Spanish is the only official Language, according to an official survey more than 250,000 Costa Ricans can speak English fluently.

Size: 51,100 square kilometers (19,730 sq. mi) plus 589.000 square kilometers of territorial waters, about the size of West Virginia.

Climate: Temperature ranges from 57 to 81 F.

Political structure: Democratic Republic with one of Latin America’ s most stable political systems.

Location: On the Central American isthmus, 10° North of the equator and 84° West of the Prime Meridian. It borders both the Caribbean Sea (to the east) and the North Pacific Ocean (to the west), with a total of 1,290 kilometres (802 mi) of coastline (212 km / 132 mi on the Caribbean coast and 1,016 km / 631 mi on the Pacific).

Army: Costa Rica was the first country in the world to constitutionally abolish its army in 1948.

Natural diversity: Costa Rica has the greatest density of species in the world.

Literacy rate: 96% one of the highest in world (CIA World Factbook, February 2007)

Life expectancy at birth: 78.2 (25th in the world above the United States and highest in Latin America)

Human Development: 47th in the world (High)

GDP Per Capita: $12,000 (52nd in the world)

Economy: Costa Rica has a diversified economy that rests mainly on tourism, agriculture and electronics.

Competitive advantages: well educated people and strategic location to world markets that has attracted Fortune 500 companies like: Intel, Procter & Gamble, Baxter Healthcare, Abbot Laboratories, Western Union and Hewlett Packard among others that have selected Costa Rica as their hub for the Western Hemisphere.

Main Investment opportunities: Real Estate development, call center outsourcing, technology, tourism and sustainable development in general.

Reputation: one of the most stable, prosperous and less corrupt countries in Latin America.

Labor force: 1.81 million estimation as of 2004.

Unemployment rate: 6.6%

Natural beauty: number one spot in ecological destinations in the world, 34 national parks with more than 25% of its territory protected.

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