Costa Rica is a Central American country. Its northern border with Nicaragua and Panama to the southeast. Its territory is bathed in the east by the Caribbean Sea, which has a maritime boundary with Nicaragua, Colombia and Panama and the west by the Pacific Ocean. Its capital, political and economic center is San Jose. The official language is Spanish.
Costa Rica is one of the most stable democracies of America with around 125 years of democracy. The country has maintained a good political stability despite the economic and social decline of the past 25 years. Furthermore, gained worldwide recognition to abolish the army on 1 December 1948, abolition was perpetuated in the 1949 Constitution.
Costa Rica is ranked fifth worldwide, as classified by the Environmental Performance Index 2008. Among Latin American countries, Costa Rica ranks first in the classification of tourism competitiveness index, and 42nd worldwide. Its human development index, is the sixth best in Latin America.
The Catholic religion is the majority and even, according to the Constitution, is the official religion of the Republic, obviously with freedom of belief.
Costa Rica has a larger continental maritime area as the ocean area is approximately 589,000 km ² including Cocos Island which is situated about 480 km southwest of the Osa Peninsula in the Pacific Ocean coast. This island was declared a Natural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 1997. Costa Rica is the country with more variety of flora and fauna of Latin America. Costa Rica is home to: 232 species of mammals, 838 bird species, 183 amphibian species, 258 reptile species and 130 species of freshwater fish.
