Costa Rica Crime – Murder rates in perspective.

It is fascinating that when there’s horrific crime news in Costa Rica that the local English language newspapers feel that it is their ‘journalistic duty’ to share all the gory details but when there’s news that some might consider good new about crime in Costa Rica, where one can put things in real perspective, then nobody wants to talk about it.

Well I do.

In a recent article in the largest circulation and most influential newspaper in Costa Rica, La Nacion entitled ‘Sicarios matan a dos personas cada mes’ or ‘Assassins kill two people per month’, they compare the murder rates of Costa Rica with the rest of Central America.

Although people talk about crime being low in Nicaragua and Panama, the facts clearly show that their murder rates are significantly higher. According to these most recent statistics, Costa Rica has the lowest murder rate in all of Central America.

According to data obtained from the 13th Annual Safest (and Most Dangerous) Cities, Morgan Quitno Press at www.morganquitno.com which you can also see here, the following cities in the USA have a much higher murder rate in the year 2005 per 100,000 inhabitants than San José, Costa Rica.

The murder rate for the capital city of San Jose, Costa Rica in 2005 was 9.2 – the murder rate in the US capital Washington DC at 35.40 is nearly four times higher than San Jose, Costa Rica…

If you want to do some research into the crime rates in your own cities in the USA, you could explore http://www.statemaster.com or http://www.nationmaster.com/ and http://www.CityRating.com/:

Our thanks to our friends at La Nación – Costa Rica’s largest Spanish circulation newspaper for their permission to include their graphics…

Written by Scott Oliver, author of How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa and Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.