Costa Rica is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. The capital and largest city is San José, with around 350,000 residents in the city proper and two million in the wider metropolitan area.
The country occupies nearly 51,180 square kilometres and supports a population of approximately five million. After independence from Spain in 1821, Costa Rica abolished its standing army in 1949 following a brief civil war, becoming one of the few sovereign nations without permanent military forces. It allocates roughly one quarter of its national budget to education—about 6.2 per cent of GDP, well above the global average of 3.8 per cent—and has developed a diversified economy built on ecotourism, finance, pharmaceuticals and corporate services. Costa Rica consistently ranks high in human development indices and is classified by the World Bank as a high-income economy, the only OECD member state in Central America and the Caribbean. Its combination of political stability, biodiversity and conservation infrastructure has made it a focal point for ecological research and nature-based adventure travel.
