Costa Rica has third worst roads in the entire American continent, not just Latin America, but from Alaska to Chile. Worse than Costa Rica is Paraguay, a country full of mountains and Haiti, a country affected by one of the worst earthquakes in the continent in the last decade.
This is the result of the latest report by the World Economic Forum on the quality (extensiveness and condition) of road infrastructure.
On the list of 137 countries, Costa Rica is number 123, with a score of 2.6 in a scoring that ranges from 1 = extremely poor —among the worst in the world to 7 = extremely good — among the best in the world.
This means that our country is affected very negatively and directly in development, affecting the transport of goods and trade and the economy in general.
In the same report, Costa Rica’s neighbor, Nicaragua is the fifth country with the best roads in Latin America and Central America and the seventh in all of America and 54 overall in the world.
El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, with their extreme political and social problems, have better roads than Costa Rica.
According to official data from the Ministerio de Obras Publicas y Transportes (MOPT) – Costa Rica’s transportation and public works ministry – the country’s road network is 5,053 kilometers of asphalt or concrete, of which in 2017 only 2,456 kilometers were in good condition.
The ranking by the World Economic Forum – from best to worst in the Americas (world ranking):
- United States 5.7 (10)
- Canada 5.4 (22)
- Chile 5.2 (24)
- Ecuador 5.1 (29)
- Panama 4.4 (49)
- Mexico 4.4 (52)
- Nicaragua 4.3 (54)
- Dominican Republic 4.3 (56)
- Trinidad & Tobago 4.1 (66)
- El Salvador 4.0 (72)
- Jamaica 3.9 (80)
- Honduras 3.8 (81)
- Uruguay 3.3 (95)
- Argentina 3.3 (96)
- Brazil 3.1 (103)
- Guatemala 3.1 (106)
- Peru 3.0 (109)
- Colombia 3.0 (110)
- Venezuela 2.8 (119)
- Costa Rica 2.6 (123)
- Paraguay 2.4 (131)
- Haiti 2.1 (135)
The country with the best ranking in the world is the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a score of 6.4 and the worst, Mauritania with a 2.0.
