Basic Facts about Costa Rica

• Spanish is the official language of Costa Rica.
• A total of 4,889,826 people live in Costa Rica.
• Costa Rica is home to more than 5% of the world’s biodiversity, even though its land occupies a mere 0.03% of the Earth’s surface.
• Costa Rica’s owns approximately 580,000 kilometres squared of marine mass, which is about 10 times the size of the land area which belongs to the country.
• Costa Ricans are commonly known as “Ticos” (males) and “Ticas” (females).
• Less than 1 percent of Costa Ricans have indigenous roots.
• The Costa Rican coastline stretches along for 1289 kilometres.
• 7 of Costa Rica’s 121 volcanic formations are active.
• There are 750,000 species of insects in Costa Rica and about 20,000 of those are spiders.
• Around 25% of Costa Rica is made up of protected forests and reserves.
• Costa Rica’s capital city is San Jose.
• Average life expectancy is around 77 years, which is one of the highest life expectancy figures in the world.
• Costa Rica doesn’t have an army.
• The national currency is the Colon, but many stores and other establishments trade in US dollars.
• Costa Rica is home to around 52 species of hummingbirds.