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Costa Rica

OFFICIAL NAME: Republic of Costa Rica

DATE OF FORMATION: 1838

POPULATION: 4.3 million

DENSITY: 218 people per square mile

LANGUAGES: Spanish, English Creole, Bribri, Cabecar

RELIGIONS: Roman Catholic 76%, Other (including Protestant) 24%

ETHNIC MIX: Mestizo and European 96%, Black 2%, Chinese 1%, Amerindian 1%

GOVERNMENT: Multiparty elections

CURRENCY: Costa Rican colón

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Spanning the Central American isthmus and wedged between Nicaragua and Panama, Costa Rica was under Spanish rule until 1821 and gained full independence in 1838. From 1948 until the end of the 1980s, it had the most developed welfare state in Central America. Costa Rica is nominally a multiparty democracy, but two parties dominate. Its army was abolished in 1948; the 1949 constitution then forbade national armies.