Costa Rica (literally meaning "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica
(Spanish: República de 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. It has a population
of around 4.5 million, of whom nearly a quarter live in the metropolitan area of
the capital and largest city, San José.
Costa Rica was sparsely inhabited by indigenous people before coming under Spanish
rule in the 16th century. It remained a peripheral colony of the empire until independence
as part of the short-lived First Mexican Empire, followed by membership in the United
Provinces of Central America, from which it formally declared sovereignty in 1847.
Since then, Costa Rica has remained among the most stable, prosperous, and progressive
nations in Latin America. Following a brief civil war, it permanently abolished its
army in 1949, becoming one of only a few sovereign nations without a standing army.
Costa Rica is an observing member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie
(OIF).
The country has consistently performed favourably in the Human Development Index
(HDI), placing 69th in the world as of 2015, among the highest of any Latin American
nation. It has also been cited by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
as having attained much higher human development than other countries at the same
income levels, with a better record on human development and inequality than the
median of the region.
