Conservation - COSTA RICA Country Facts

Costa Rica

Population: 4.3 million (UN, 2005) Capital: San Jose Area: 51,100 sq km (19,730 sq miles) Major languages: Spanish (official), English Major religion: Christianity Life expectancy: 76 years (men), 81 years (women) Monetary unit: 1 Costa Rican colon = 100 centimos Main exports: Coffee, bananas, sugar, textiles, electronic components, electricity GNI per capita: US$4,590 (World Bank, 2006) International dialing code: +506

Geography

Costa Rica is situated in Central America. With the Caribbean Sea to the East and the North Pacific Ocean to the West it has 1290km of coastline. It has land borders with Panama to the South and Nicaragua to the North. The topography ranges from coastal plains to rugged mountains with over 100 volcanic cones. Of these, four are major volcanoes and two are active. Costa Rica has a tropical and subtropical climate with both a dry and a rainy season and cooler temperatures in the highlands. Costa Rica suffers from natural hazards such as occasional earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, flooding and landslides.

People

Costa Rica's population of 2.92 million is made up of 96% white or 'mestizo' (mixed Spanish and Native American) who are predominantly of European origin, 2% African who descend from the Afro-Caribbean migrant labor force of the 1870's, 1% Chinese and 1% indigenous. This 1% represents about 30,000 people, which is all that remains of the Native Americans. The majority of the population is Roman Catholic. As well as Spanish, English is also widely spoken. The literacy rate is 94.8%.

Brief History

Before the arrival of the Spanish, archaeologists estimate that Costa Rica had been inhabited for about 10,000 years. Christopher Colombus discovered Costa Rica in 1502 while on his fourth voyage to the New World. At this time there were four separate indigenous groups in Costa Rica with an accumulated population of roughly twenty thousand. On arrival, Colombus was warmly greeted by the Carab Indians who paddled out on their canoes to meet his crew. The sophisticated gold and jade work to be found combined with the gold bands used by the natives to adorn their noses and ears inspired Colombus to name the land Costa Rica (the rich coast). After the arrival of the Spanish, the numbers of natives decreased rapidly as many fled, and others were killed off by the deadly smallpox. With native Costa Ricans in such low numbers, African slaves were imported to be the labor force.

Costa Rica was the least influential of the Spanish colonies because of its lack of valuable or easily exploitable natural resources, and the first colonial city was not established until 1562. After almost three centuries of Spanish occupation, Costa Rica gained full independence in 1838. The following years saw Costa Rica's first elected head of state, the defeat of a would-be US conqueror, the introduction of banana cultivation and the founding of the United Fruit Company, periods of military rule, a series of elected presidents, and a six-week civil war in 1948 over the refusal of Calderon to relinquish power after losing the presidential election. In 1949 Jose Maria Figueres Ferrer led a revolution to topple Calderon's government, and succeeded within a month. Ferrer, nicknamed 'Don Pepe' is popularly considered to be the savior of the nation. Under his leadership women and blacks gained the vote, the communist party was banned, banks were nationalized, presidential term limits were established and the armed forces were abolished and replaced by the civil guard. This social and economic progress helped stabilize the country and cemented Costa Rica's liberal democratic values. Up to the present, Costa Rica has had free and fair elections, and in 2006 Oscar Arias was elected president.

Politics

Costa Rica is a democratic republic. Two main parties have dominated political life over the past decades, the National Liberation Party (PLN) and the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC). In general they have succeeded each other in power every four years. Recently several other parties have emerged including the Citizens Action Party (PAC) and the Libertarian Movement (ML). The PLN regained power in the most recent elections held in February 2006 with Oscar Arias as president. Party policies aim to improve health, education, law and order, and promote free trade and international peace.

Economy

Having recovered from the crisis of 1980 Costa Rica now has a relatively stable economy. It relies heavily on tourism as well as exports of electrical components, medical supplies, textiles and tropical fruits. Exports of coffee, bananas and sugar play a significantly less important role in the economy than previously due to low world commodity prices. Paying off internal and external debt accounts for a third of the annual budget. Unemployment stands at 6.6%. Costa Rica has the smallest population in Latin America but it nevertheless has one of the highest GDP per capita. Improvements which need to be made include reducing inflation, reforming the tax system and changing the pattern of public expenditure. In 2004 Costa Rica, along with four other Central American countries signed an agreement with the US called the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Costa Rica is currently the only country not to have ratified the agreement.