Source: CIA World Factbook

Source: Wikipedia Commons

The Republic of Costa Rica (Spanish: República de Costa Rica) is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the east and south, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south and the Caribbean Sea to the east. Costa Rica's total area is 51,100 km2 (19,652 square miles) and had an estimated population in 2009 of 4,509,290.

Whites and mestizos (people of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry) make up 94% of the population, while 3% are Black/Afro-Caribbean, 1% Amerindian, 1% Chinese, and 1% other. The majority of whites are primarily of Spaniard ancestry.

Roman Catholicism is the official state religion in Costa Rica. 70.5% of Costa Ricans are Roman Catholics, 44.9% of the population are practicing Catholics, 13.8% are Evangelical Protestants (many of them Pentecostal), 11.3% report that they do not have a religion, and 4.3% belonged to another.

In August 1961 the Conservative Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities (Rosedale Mennonite Missions) sent two missionary couples to establish a Mennonite witness in Costa Rica, eventually establishing the Convención Evangélica Menonita de Costa Rica. A group of Beachy Amish led by minister Sanford Yoder and several families pioneered a settlement in Costa Rica in 1968.

In 2009 the following Anabaptist groups were active in Costa Rica:

Bibliography

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