Costa Rica  

Costa Rica has a high inflation rate of 9% as well as an above average unemployment rate of 5%. Costa Rican workers have access to a lower than average amount of physical capital, such as office space, factories, and machinery, limiting their production capacity. Costa Rica’s export revenues are low relative to the cost of imports, ranking the country in the bottom quartile on this variable. With a wide lending and borrowing margin, the Costa Rican banking sector displays low levels of competition and efficiency. However, lending seems strongly regulated as only 1.2% of all loans defaulted in 2007, ranking Costa Rica 20th on this variable. Costa Rica enjoys a high level of foreign direct investment equalling 7% of GDP, indicating that it is attractive to foreign investors. At 23% of GDP, household expenditure is below average, while a domestic savings rate equivalent to 25% of GDP seems moderately strong, ranking Costa Rica 62nd, internationally. Costa Rica does not show symptoms of overreliance on revenues from raw materials exports, with a concentration level of less than 10%.

With approximately 23 personal computers per 100 people, and 67 secure internet servers per million people, a significant share of the Costa Rican population has access to a moderately fast and secure internet connection. The country has also managed to achieve impressive ICT exports equivalent to around 29% of total exports, and high-tech exports equalling 45% of manufactured exports, placing the Costa Ricans in the top 10 on both these indexes and pushing up their overall ranking for this sub-index. Value added in the service industry also stands above average at 62% of GDP, indicating a fairly strong, service economy. However, with 11 procedures required to set up a business, barriers to entry are well above the global average and may have deterred some entrepreneurs, as only 3,933 new businesses registered in 2007, ranking Costa Rica below the international median. Royalty receipts are also low, meaning that Costa Ricans’ ability to capitalise on their intellectual property is limited. Expenditure on R&D is below the international average at only 0.3% of GDP.

Costa Ricans have very high levels of political and civil liberties, but their rights to participate in political processes and to express their opinions and affiliations are limited. Despite this, the country’s political system is characterised by high levels of open political competition amongst multiple parties for appointments at both executive and legislative levels. However, once in power there are few political checks and balances in place to prevent actors from changing legislation arbitrarily. The judicial system is independent from the other branches of government, preventing interference in the legal processes from this source. The current governmental system has been in place for over 80 years, ranking Costa Rica eighth on this measure of political stability.

Only 92% of primary school aged children are enrolled in schools, placing Costa Rica 55th in the Index on this variable. The rates are lower for secondary enrolment at 86% and gross tertiary enrolment levels are moderate, with a quarter of the population attending higher education. With one teacher for every 19 students at primary school level, Costa Rica performs better than the global average, suggesting reasonably small class sizes and, potentially, a higher quality of education. This is in line with Costa Rica’s above average educational expenditure of $2,000 per student in primary and secondary education, ranking the country 45th on this variable. Costa Rica does not appear to have problems with gender discrimination in schools with 102 girls enrolled for every 100 boys at the primary and secondary level. However, on average Costa Rican workers have just 4.5 years in secondary education – ranking in the bottom quartile – and four years in tertiary education, ranking the country just below the global average.

Despite less than 15 hospital staff and hospital beds per 10,000 people, Costa Ricans benefit from a high health-adjusted life expectancy of 67 years, which ranks them well inside the top half of the table, internationally. Problems with poverty-related health issues are fairly low: 5% of the population is malnourished while the infant mortality rate is at 1.1%, 96% of the population has access to improved sanitation facilities and 88% of people were satisfied with their quality of water.* Some 92% of Costa Ricans claimed to be satisfied with their state of health, which is the fourth-highest proportion, internationally, and 76% felt well rested.* Despite this, 28% of people reported having experienced pain for a protracted period of the day, ranking the country 70th in the Index, and 22% claim to suffer debilitating health problems, which ranks the country 43rd worldwide.*

The movement of refugees poses a domestic security challenge to Costa Rica, ranking the country 51st in the Index on this variable. Security issues related to communities with a history of social discrimination and human flight from dangerous or degrading conditions are much less serious, ranking Costa Rica in the top third, internationally, on both variables. Evidence suggests that the Costa Rican government does not engage in political violence or imprisonment against its own citizens and no casualties were reported due to civil violence and ethnic strife. With regards to personal security, the homicide rate ranks higher than the international median, with seven deaths per 100,000 capita. Furthermore, 13% of the population reported being victims of muggings or assault, ranking Costa Rica 90th in the Index on the latter variable.* Rates of property theft are at 18%, ranking Costa Rica 75th, and less than half of the population feels safe walking alone at night, ranking the country 79th, internationally.*

In Costa Rica, the rule of law applies equally to all citizens, and the quality of regulation of economic and commercial activities is high, ranking the country 38th and 39th, respectively, in the Index on these factors. The civil service is fairly effective when carrying out the objectives of political leaders, but despite this, more than four out of five Costa Ricans believe that local government is corrupt, and the same proportion believe that corruption is rife in local businesses, ranking the country just above the international averages on these variables.* Just over half of the population has confidence in the military, which ranks Costa Rica 84th on this variable.* The freedom of political participation in Costa Rica has been deemed free and fair and 53% of the population have faith in the honesty of elections while 48% approve of the legal system.*

Costa Ricans enjoy excellent freedom of movement, religion, and speech, and 91% of respondents were satisfied with the freedom to choose in their daily lives.* Tolerance of ethnic minorities and immigrants is above the international average, with 72% of people believing Costa Rica to be a good place for both immigrants and minorities.*

Costa Ricans demonstrate strong social responsibility towards their community; the proportion of people who volunteers, stands at 21% and those who donate at 40%.* Additionally, an impressive 60% help strangers, placing Costa Rica in the top 20 for this variable.* Nine out of 10 respondents believe that they can rely on friends and family, ranking Costa Rica in the top quartile, emphasising high levels of trust within these groups.* Costa Rica is amongst the most religious nations worldwide, ranking 39th, internationally, on this variable.* Data on group membership and trust in others were not available for this country.

* Data taken from the Gallup World Poll

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