Cultural Demography
With a total population of just under five million, Costa Rica is one of the more culturally homogenous countries in the Americas.
Unlike many of their Central American neighbors, present-day Costa Ricans are largely of European rather than "mestizos" (mixed European and indigenous) descent; Spain was the primary country of origin. Few of the indigenous peoples survived European contact. Indeed, the indigenous population today numbers about 29,000, or one percent of the population. Descendants of 19th century Jamaican immigrant workers constitute an English-speaking minority; at three percent of the population, they number about 96,000.
Spanish is the official language of Costa Rica, although a Jamaican dialect, rooted in English, is spoken around the area of Port Limon.
The predominant religion is Christianity, with Roman Catholicism being the most practice d denomination. Evangelical Protestants are also represented.
Human Development
In terms of health and welfare, the infant mortality rate is about 9.95 deaths per 1,000 live births. Life expectancy for the total population is 77.21 years of age. In-school education is compulsory until the age of nine years, and attendance rates are close to 100 percent for elementary age students. The functional literacy rate for the total population is approximately 96 percent.
One notable measure used to determine a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which has been compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a ranking of 169 countries, the HDI placed Costa Rica in the high human development category, at 62nd place.
Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief at CountryWatch.com. See Bibliography for general research sources.