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.
One of the Nicoya Peninsula’s best-known wildlife destinations is facing renewed pressure from illegal hunters, after camera traps placed inside or near Refugio Nacional...
