Mixed year-end news out of Costa Rica

Manuel Antonio

On the positive side, Costa Rica closed out 2016 with its lowest poverty rate in seven years. In 2015, 21.7 percent of Ticos were found to live in poverty; one year later, however, the poverty level improved 1.2 percentage points to 20.5 percent. 

In total numbers, 317,660 families now live above the poverty line, up from 307,270 the year before. Authorities credit the reduction to improvements in the inflation rate, government programs, and remittances.

Unfortunately, 2016 was another year of increasing insecurity in Costa Rica. Nineteen more people were murdered last year compared to the year before. Costa Rica's violence levels are nowhere near those of the Northern Triangle, but its year-end homicide rate of 12 per 100,000 is what the World Health Organization would consider epidemic. It's also nearly double what it was about the last time I was there in 2002.