Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Ecuador to the south of Cocos Island. Capital: San José Currency: Costa Rican colón President: Luis Guillermo Solís ECONOMY In recent times, pharmaceuticals, financial outsourcing, software development, and ecotourism have become the prime industries in Costa Ricas economy. High levels of education among its residents make the country an attractive investing location. Since 1999, tourism earns more foreign exchange than the combined exports of the countrys three main cash crops: bananas, pineapples and coffee.Coffee production has played a key role in Costa Ricas history and economy, and by 2006, was the third cash crop export. The largest coffee growing areas are in the provinces of San José, Alajuela, Heredia, Puntarenas, and Cartago. Costa Rica is famous for its gourmet coffee beans, with Costa Rican Tarrazú among the finest arabica coffee beans in the world used for making espresso coffee, together with Jamaican Blue Mountain, Guatemalan Antigua and Ethiopian Sidamo. POPULATION The 2011 census counted a population of 4,301,712 people. Whites, castizos and mestizos 83.63%, while 1.05% are Black, or Afro-Caribbean, 6.12% Mulattoes, 2.4% Native American, 0.2% Chinese, and 6.6% other.[citation needed] An average Costa Rican from the Central Valley has an 67.5% European, 29.3% Amerindian and 3.2% African ancestry. There are also over 104,000 Native American or indigenous inhabitants, representing 2.4% of the population. Most of them live in secluded reservations, distributed among eight ethnic groups: Quitirrisí (in the Central Valley), Matambú or Chorotega (Guanacaste), Maleku (northern Alajuela), Bribri (southern Atlantic), Cabécar (Cordillera de Talamanca), Guaymí (southern Costa Rica, along the Panamá border), Boruca (southern Costa Rica) and Térraba (southern Costa Rica). The population of European ancestry is primarily of Spanish descent,with significant numbers of Italian, German, English, Dutch, French, Irish, Portuguese, and Polish families, as well a sizable Jewish community. The majority of the Afro-Costa Ricans are Creole English-speaking descendants of 19th century black Jamaican immigrant workers. RELIGION Christianity is the predominant religion, and Roman Catholicism is the official state religion according to the 1949 Constitution, which at the same time guarantees freedom of religion.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Jul 2014 19:04:34 +0000