Costa Rica
The Republic of Costa Rica is a country located in the Central American region of North America. It shares land borders with Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, and a maritime border with Ecuador to the south of Cocos Island. Costa Rica's official name is the Republic of Costa Rica. With a land area of 51,060 km2, it supports a population of around five million people (19,710 sq mi). San José, the country's capital and biggest city, is home to an estimated 333,980 residents, while the metropolitan region that surrounds the city is home to around two million people.
The constitutional republic of the sovereign state is unitary and presidential in nature. It has a democracy that has been in place for a very long time and is quite stable, and its workforce is very well educated. Comparatively, the nation allocates around 6.9% of its budget to education in 2016, which is more than the average worldwide allocation of 4.4%. Its economy, which was once highly focused on agriculture, has now expanded to include areas like as banking, corporate services for international corporations, medicines, and ecotourism, amongst others. Numerous international businesses, including manufacturers and service providers, have set up shop in Costa Rica's Free Trade Zones (FTZ), where they may take advantage of the country's favourable investment and tax climate.
Before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, Costa Rica was inhabited by a variety of different native peoples. It remained a peripheral colony of the empire until the time of its independence when it was a part of the First Mexican Empire. After that, it was a member of the Federal Republic of Central America until 1847, when it officially proclaimed its independence from that entity. After a relatively short civil war in 1948, Costa Rica decided in 1949 to do away with its army for good, making it one of just a handful of sovereign states in the world without a regular military force.
The Human Development Index (HDI) scores for the nation have been continually above average, and as of the year 2020, it was ranked sixth in Latin America and 62nd overall in the world. It has also been highlighted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as having much greater human development than other nations with similar economic levels, as well as a better record on human development and inequality than the regional median. Also, it fares well in comparisons of democracy, press freedom, and subjective happiness. According to the Press Freedom Index, it has the seventh-freest press, and according to the Freedom in the World ranking and the World Happiness Report, it is the twelfth-happiest nation.