Costa Rica ranked as the 7th best in the world in terms of quality

Well-being and quality of life

An evaluation of the country’s public health system ranked it as the seventh-best in the world in terms of life quality and the best in Latin America.

Additionally, Costa Rica is the highest-ranking country in the Happy Planet Index, the second year that it has received this distinction. The HPI examines aspects such as sustainable happiness at the national level, examining around 140 countries on the following criteria: how happy their citizens are, how long their live, and the amount of resources they use.

According to the 2019 World Happiness Report, published by the UN, Costa Rica is ranked 12th in a list of 156 countries. This index analyzes a variety of indicators such as life expectancy, social support and corruption, among others. This year’s report paid more attention to addiction issues, which, it says, are a factor in unhappiness and depression.

“I don’t want an army of soldiers, but an army of educators”, President José Figueres Ferrer, 1948. This was the phrase that put an end to Costa Rica’s army and converted into one of the world’s first countries without armed forces. Over 70 years ago, the country has put aside violence to invest more in education, health and infrastructure.

That is why this decision strengthened the practice of democracy and the country’s sociopolitical stability.