Costa+Rica

toc = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = //**__Costa Rica__**//



=__Geographical Profile/Political Information:__ =  **Relative Location:** Costa Rica is south of Nicaragua, Costa Rica is North West if Panama and Costa Rica is also north east of the Pacific Ocean. **Absolute Location**: 10 degrees north of the equator and 84 degrees west of the prime meridian. **Distance and Direction from Lancaster, Pa:** The distance is 2131 miles and the direction heading from Pennsylvania is 40 degrees north and 76 degrees south-southwest. **Size and Comparative size:** 51,100 sq. km **Climate:** Mild in the Central highlands and tropical and subtropical in the coastal areas. **Major Physical Features:** A rugged, central range separates the eastern and western coastal plains. **Major Culture Characteristics:** Roman Catholicism is the most popular in Costa Rica. One of the country’s most famous dishes is called gallo pinto which is a combination of black beans, rice and spiced cilantro. Costa Rica has some of the same holidays as the United States including Christmas and New Years Day. **Major Cities, including the capital:** San Jose is the capital of Costa Rica. Other major cities outside of San Jose are Liberia, Limon, and Puntarenas. **Type of Government:** Democratic republic **Head of State and Head of Government:** Laura Chinchilla Miranda **Global Organizations:** WHO, WTO, and FAO

=__Economic Information:__ = **Currency and exchange rate:** The currency is Costa Rican colon (CRC), and one U.S dollar is equal to 496.56 CRC. **Natural Resources:** Hydroelectric power, forest products, and fisheries products <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">**Agriculture Products:** Pineapples, bananas, coffee, beef, sugar, rice, dairy products, vegetables, fruits, ornamental plants, corn, beans, potatoes, and timber <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">**Industries:** Electronic component, medical equipment, textiles and apparel, tires, food processing, construction materials, fertilizer, and plastic products <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">**Imports and Import Partners**: Raw materials, consumer goods, capital equipment, and petroleum. From U.S, Mexico, Venezuela, China, and Japan. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">**Exports and Export Partners:** Integrated circuits, medical equipment, bananas, pineapple, coffee, melons, ornamental plants, sugar, textiles, and electronic components. Major markets; U.S, Netherlands, China, Mexico. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">**GDP and GDP per capita:** GDP- 38.27 billion GDP per capita- 10,569 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">**HDI and HDI Ranking:** HDI rose from 0.599 to 0.725 and it’s ranked at 62 out of 169. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">**Unemployment Rate:** 6.7%

=__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 100%; line-height: 115%;">Population Information: __= <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Current Population of Costa Rica:** 4.516 million <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Population Density:** 89.6 hab/sq km <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Age Distribution:** 0-14 years 24.6%, 15-64 years 69.1%, 65 years and over 6.4%. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Natural Rate of Increase:** 1.3 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It will take 53.8 for Costa Rica to double in size. ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Literacy Rate:** Total population 94.9%, Males 94.7%, and Females 95.1%. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Infant Mortality Rate:** 9.45/1000 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Life Expectancy at Age 1:** Males 75.1 years and Females 80.46 years and All 77.72. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Physical Quality of Life Index ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">97.8 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">96.4 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">96.36 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Ethnic Groups:** European and some mestizo 94%, African origin 3%, Chinese 1%, Amerindian 1% <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Chief Religions: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #252525; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Roman Catholic 76.3%, Evangelical Protestant 13.7%, other 4.8%, none 3.2%. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Main Language: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #252525; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Spanish, with a southwestern Caribbean Creole dialect of English spoken around the Limon area. =<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 100%; line-height: 115%;">__Human Rights Information:__ = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">In Costa Rica there are many human right violations, including domestic violence against women and children, child prostitution, trafficking of persons, and child labor. Also there are reports of spousal rape, although it’s harder to prove and less often reported. There were few minor reports of societal abuse or discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice. In one instance when authorities were notified, the government immediately removed all persons involved. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Unlike most countries Costa Rica tries hard to protect its citizens. In Costa Rica there are several reports of women and children being trafficked to, from, and within the country, mainly for commercial sexual exploitation. The countries where that were most often taken were Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Guatemala. Men also are being trafficked but just for forced labor. The law in Costa Rica criminalizes the transnational trafficking of persons for the purpose of prostitution or forced labor with a three to six year prison sentence. The government acknowledged the serious problems of human trafficking, especially the sexual exploitation of minors. Campaigns against child sex tourism continued, as did television, radio and billboard to warn young women of the dangers of commercial sexual exploitation. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">**__Environmental Information:__** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">One of Costa Ricas major environmental problems is deforestation, which is the clearing of forests and trees. The countries natural vegetation was originally all forest, but most of that has been cleared mainly for pasture of agriculture. Between 1973 and 1989, Costa Rica’s forests were being lost at an average rate of 2.4% each year, estimated by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Deforestation still continues at a high rate and there are very few natural forests besides the areas that are protected. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Even within national parks, some areas have been logged, or stripped of trees illegally because the parks don’t have enough money to hire and pay guards. Besides the major issues of deforestation and the loss of many plants and animals, Costa Rica also has the problem of soil erosion. Soil erosion causes the loss of agricultural growth, which means it’s harder to grow bananas the main agricultural product in Costa Rica. To protect the fruit it entails the use of pesticides and blue plastic bags that end up polluting the environment. =<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">**__Decision Statement:__** = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">If I had the choice to live in Costa Rica I would, it’s a beautiful place. Three specific reasons I would move to Costa Rica are it has a low cost of living, the literacy rate, and it’s economic development is rising. Not to mention all of the activities you can do including sip lining, surfing, and there are <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> a lot of waterfalls to explore. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The sound of low cost living may not be what you want to hear from a country but unlike Belize and Honduras, Costa Rica has high education, the society is more peace, and the government is more stable. Overall the quality of living is higher than other countries. The literacy rate is also high, it was also one of the first countries to make education obligatory and free, it’s rate is almost at 95%. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">One major reason that I would like to move to is because the economic development is rising. Costa Rica’s Human Development Report shows that it’s longevity was higher than the United States. Even though the country doesn’t have a lot of money you never see children begging for money and in most areas of Costa Rica you are able to find clean water, good education, and the healthcare is similar to the United States.