Overview

Slightly smaller than West Virginia, Costa Rica has an area of 19,652 square miles (51,032 square kilometers). Its terrain is rugged and divided from north to south by a central mountain range that separates the eastern and western coastal plains. Costa Rica is located in the southern end of Central America and bordered to the north by Nicaragua and to the south by Panama. Its climate is tropical and subtropical, varying according to altitude and distance from the coasts.

Costa Rica has a population of 3,000,000 with an annual growth rate of 2.5 percent. Almost 30 percent (890,434) of its population lives in the capital city of San José. Ninety-six percent of the total population is from European stock, including some mestizos, while three percent is of black descent and one percent is indigenous; a small percentage of its inhabitants are Asian. Ninety-five percent of the Costa Rican population...