In Central America there is a tiny independent country which decided to be one of the only 18 countries without armed forces, where people decide freely who their governors are. It is a country that look after their rights and duties, and protects nature. This country is called Costa Rica.

It happens to be that Costa Rica has become the happiest country in the world, according to World Database of Happiness, compiled by a Dutch sociologist on the basis of answers to surveys by Gallup and others. Costa Rica was placed first among 148 countries. It is a collection of findings on happiness in the sense of 'the subjective enjoyment of one's life as-a-whole'.

All the countries were asked to measure different characteristics from 1-10. Costa Ricans rated their own in 8,5, followed by Danish with 8,3, the Americans are placed 20th with 7,4. The countries which were placed last are Togo and Tanzania with an average of 2,6.

Costa Rica is a the top of “the happy life years” determined by the life expectancy figure which is 66,7 years. The United States has 58 years. Zimbabwe comes last with 12,5 years.

The efforts with sustainability practices in different industries and sectors had made Costa Rica took the first place again when talking about environment protection. The United States places itself very low at this point due to the ecological and irreversible impact.

“Costa Rica has done an unusually good job preserving nature, and it’s surely easier to be happy while basking in sunshine and greenery than while shivering up north and suffering ‘nature deficit disorder’ ”, commented Nicholas D. Kristof, Columnist of the New York Times.

Costa Rica has invested in other projects such as education and the social security. The abolition of the armed forces helped direct founds and budgets to those areas of the country. Those and other things create a stable society. The gender equality is better than in other countries. Women in Costa Rica have become an important labor force. Definitely education in Costa Rica helps to improve many social areas of the country.

Costa Rica is in the lead of environmental issues. The country has C-Neutral practices. The Environmental Performance Index places Costa Rica in the spot #5 in the world (Europe not included).

All these conditions attract a good part of the retired Americans when deciding on buying any kind of real estate in Costa Rica and continue living in such a quiet, cheap and accessible place.

“My hunch is that in 25 years, we’ll see large numbers of English-speaking retirement communities along the Costa Rican coast”, said Kristof. “I encourage you to conduct your own research in Costa Rica. It’ll surely make you happy.” He said.