Did You Know These 7 Fun Facts About Costa Rica?

Costa Rica is a beautiful country, and my time there quickly became one of my favorite trips so far! I fell in love with its cloud forests full of wildlife, its scenic waterfalls, and of course, all the amazing people I met there.

Since I had such a great time, I wanted to learn more about the country. This post lists some fun facts I found about Costa Rica. I hope you find them as interesting as I did!

The name “Costa Rica” means “rich coast.”

This is quite a fitting name for all the amazing nature that Costa Rica contains!

Costa Rica is one of the happiest countries in the world.

The Happy Planet Index measures sustainable well-being, or the ecological efficiency with which long, happy lives are achieved. Costa Rica has consistently topped this list over the years. Maybe the rest of us could learn a thing or two from the Costa Rican way of life!

Costa Rica contains nearly 6% of the world’s biodiversity.

For such a small country, Costa Rica contains an amazing amount of natural diversity. In fact, Costa Rica is considered to possess the highest density of biodiversity of any country in the world.

This uniquely high biodiversity has resulted in part from the fact that approximately three to five million years ago, Costa Rica and what is now Panama formed a bridge connecting the North and South American continents. This bridge allowed for the mixing of the two continents’ very different flora and fauna.

Costa Rica is home to over 500,000 species of wildlife.

Costa Rica contains a wide variety of ecosystems, including tropical rainforests, deciduous forests, Atlantic and Pacific coastlines, cloud forests, and mangrove forests. These ecosystems provide homes for many different species. Hundreds of these species are endemic to Costa Rica, meaning that they don’t exist anywhere else in the world.

Of Costa Rica’s 500,000 species, slightly over 300,000 are insects, and 10% of known butterfly species are found in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica is one of the world’s biggest exporters of coffee.

According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, Costa Rica exported $372 million worth of coffee in 2021, making it the 22nd largest exporter of coffee in the world. In the same year, coffee was the 6th-highest exported product in Costa Rica.

If you’re visiting the country, you can go on a coffee farm tour to learn more about Costa Rica’s coffee industry and get a taste test of different roasting techniques. I went on one in Monteverde that I can highly recommend!

Costa Rica contains more ocean than land.

Costa Rica encompasses 574,725 km² of ocean and only 51,100 km² of land.

The national animal of Costa Rica is the white-tailed deer.

Unexpectedly, the national animal of Costa Rica is not the sloths or tree frogs that the country is commonly associated with, but the white-tailed deer. The white-tailed deer is mostly found in Guanacaste Province and is featured on the 1000 colones bill.

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I hope these fun facts about Costa Rica taught you something new!

For more inspiration for your trip to Costa Rica, check out 7 Amazing Places to Visit in Costa Rica and Traveling Costa Rica on a Budget: Top 10 Money-Saving Tips.