Costa Rica is a nation of 5 million people, and 19,700 square miles, a little smaller than
West Virginia. It’s in Central America, with Panama to the south and Nicaragua to the north, with
the Pacific Ocean on the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east.
Costa Rica abolished its army in 1949. Article 12 of the Costa Rican constitution
abolished the army. The country does have a police force and paramilitary units to defend the
borders. It’s hardly perfect but has not had a war or revolution since 1948 (when there was a
civil war). The crime rate is low, the country is doing more than most countries to preserve the
environment, about 25% of the land is protected. Income is low, but health indicators are better
than the U.S.—life expectancy in Costa Rica is 80.4 years compared to 77.3 in the U.S.
Other countries also have no army, Iceland being the best other example. There are a
couple of dozen small island nations with no army, but they have defense agreements with the
U.S., Australia, France or come other powerful nation.
[The link below is for an article of that name at MilitaryWiki, a large site. You may have to scroll
down some].
https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Countries_without_a_Military
