Poverty in Costa Rica remained stable at 21% in the last year, while extreme poverty had a slight reduction of half a percentage point to 5.8%, the official statistical agency said Thursday.
Costa Rica's prisons are desperately overcrowded thanks in large part, some say, to an overuse of pretrial detention, also known as preventive prison or "preventiva."
President Luis Guillermo Solís said a new poverty index, created by Oxford University, puts people over statistics. The index reported that 21.8 percent of Costa Rican households are considered poor, totaling 1.26 million people.
Poverty in Costa Rica dropped slightly over the past year, but extreme poverty continues to rise -- to 7.2 percent in 2015, according to the latest census institute survey.
Extreme poverty will this year fall to less than 10 percent of the global population for the first time, although there is still "great concern" for millions in Africa, a World Bank report said Sunday.
Eighty students from across Costa Rica participated in a photo course designed to explore the theme of poverty in everyday life. The photographs will be on display at the National Museum this weekend until Sunday, Sept. 27.
The world "witnessed an historic reduction in global poverty" over the first decade of the century, with those considered "middle income" nearly doubling, according to the Pew Research Center. But Costa Rica's middle class — and that of most other Central American countries — shrunk over the same time period as a percentage of those countries' total population.
President Solís' plan aims to unify all 30 of the government's current aid programs into a single welfare system called the “Unique System of Beneficiaries.”
Nearly three in ten Costa Rican households have no fixed internet, and the gap sits in the rural and coastal areas that show up most often on relocation shortlists.
The Judicial Investigation Agency is treating the death of a 75-year-old U.S. citizen found in Cabo Velas, Santa Cruz, as an apparent homicide possibly linked to a robbery at the property.
Costa Rica’s Justice Ministry has ended its agreement with the Judicial Branch to conduct virtual court hearings from prison, a decision that could require...
The governing party filed a criminal complaint against four Constitutional Chamber judges on Monday. Judicial unions have called a protest for Thursday, August 6.
