Costa Rica
San José · Mexico & Central America
A tiny country that abolished its army, planted its flag in biodiversity, and greets the world with a cheerful "¡Pura vida!"
Snapshot
Costa Rica is a small Central American nation of about 5 million people, yet it shelters nearly 6% of the world's biodiversity. Its Spanish is clear, polite, and distinctly tico — marked by a warm, unhurried cadence and the near-constant use of diminutives. The country is also one of the few in the Americas where voseo coexists comfortably with tuteo, though vos is the dominant informal form in everyday speech.
- Capital
- San José
- Population
- ~5.2 million
- Currency
- Costa Rican colón (CRC)
- Language
- Spanish (official) + Bribri and other Indigenous languages recognized by law
Did you know?
- ✨Costa Rica abolished its military in 1948 — one of the very few countries in the world to have done so by constitutional mandate.
- ✨The country generates more than 99% of its electricity from renewable sources, primarily hydroelectric and geothermal power.
- ✨Costa Rica covers just 0.03% of the Earth's surface but contains an estimated 5–6% of all known species on the planet.
- ✨The mysterious giant stone spheres (esferas de piedra) made by the pre-Columbian Diquís people are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- ✨Costa Ricans have one of the highest life expectancies in the Western Hemisphere — the Nicoya Peninsula is one of the world's five Blue Zones.