Costa Rica Country Info - North America

Description and Basic Information

Costa Rica with its capital San José is located in North America (Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean). It covers some 51,101 square kilometres (slightly smaller than West Virginia) with 4,191,000 citizens. Spanish and English are the the languages commonly used by the people in Costa Rica. It is charing borders with Panama and Nicaragua.

Costa Rica is a country in Central America. It is one of the world's most popular destinations for eco-tourists because of its biodiversity, having bewilderingly diverse landscapes, flora, and fauna. From rain forests, to dry tropical and temperate forests, to volcanoes, to Caribbean and Pacific beaches, to high mountains, and marshy lowlands. You have to exercise caution when renting a car in Costa Rica; where it is not uncommon for rental companies to claim damage they insist you inflicted on the vehicle. Try to rent a car through a Costa Rican travel agent. If you are traveling on a package, your agent will sort this out. Spanish is the main language in Costa Rica. All major newspapers and official business are conducted in Spanish. English is used widely in areas populated by international tourists. Costa Rica is one of the countries with more rivers per square kilometer than anywhere else in the world. Anywhere you go you will find some kind of float trip to enjoy nature from a very unique point of view. Most places have potable water, so don't worry about drinking tap water. Bottled water is also available at low prices. The national drink is called guaro, which is made from fermented sugar cane. It is similar to vodka, and is usually drunk with water and lemon. Costa Rica has one of the highest levels of social care in the world. Its doctors are known worldwide as some of the best. International calls are fairly expensive. The cheapest way to make them is over the internet using a service such as Skype at an Internet café.

Pictures from Capital (San José)

Photos provided by Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners.

About Costa Rica

The landscape features coastal plains separated by rugged mountains including over 100 volcanic cones, of which several are major volcanoes. The average density of population is about 82 per km². The climate in Costa Rica can be described as tropical and subtropical with dry season (December to April), rainy season (May to November), cooler in highlands. Potential threats by nature are occasional earthquakes, hurricanes along Atlantic coast or frequent flooding of lowlands at onset of rainy season and landslides or active volcanoes.

To reach someone in Costa Rica dial +506 prior to a number. There are 1,493,000 installed telephones. And there are 1,950,000 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 1800 Mhz. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".cr". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 120V - 60Hz. The following list are the 7 regions/states in Costa Rica we know off.

Demographic Statistics

In the year 2010, the total Costa Rican population grew at a rate of 1.35% (or by 60,833 citizens). With 19,375 deaths and 75,195 babies born, the natural increase rate lies at 1.24%. 5,013 persons more in total immigrated to the country than emmigrated.

An overview of age distribution in Costa Rica: Each pair of bars represents a single age group (male/female). Each group is spanning 5 years. E.g. 0 to 5 years, 5 to 10 etc. and group "0 to 5" being at the left end and "100 +" at the right end of the chart.

Based on content from wikitravel.org. The original article can be found here based on the work of these users.
Geographic information is based on the data provided by geonames.org, CIA factsbook and Unesco.