POPULATION 3,834,934
ROMAN CATHOLIC 70.1 percent
PROTESTANT 18 percent
OTHER RELIGIONS 1.8 percent
NONRELIGIOUS 10.1 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

Costa Rica is a predominantly Spanish-speaking county located in Central America. Largely mountainous, it lies between Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south. To the west is the Pacific Ocean, and to the east is the Caribbean Sea.

At the time of the Spanish conquest, beginning in the early sixteenth century, Costa Rica was inhabited by several ethnolinguistic groups: the Chorotegas on the north Pacific coast, the Huétares in the Central Valley and on the Caribbean coast, and the Bruncas in the southern region along the Pacific. More than half the Indians died during the 1500s because of disease or warfare with the Spaniards. By 1611 the entire Costa Rican population was reported to be 15,000, which included Indians, Spaniards, and mixed race, called mestizos.

During the Spanish colonial period (1519–1821), Roman...