Region

Hojancha Is One of the Top 10 Cantons for Social Progress in Costa Rica

Esta publicación también está disponible en: Español

In Hojancha, investment is not competitive, business is nowhere near as big as in cantons like Liberia and livestock development is nothing like in Santa Cruz. However, Hojancha is the Guanacaste canton with the best social progress index and it ranks tenth nationwide.

What is the social progress index? It is a tool that measures social and environmental factors  that complement a canton’s economy and analyzes how these factors are transformed into collective welfare.

To Jaime Garcia, methodology expert for the social progress index, Hojancha appears to have the best rating in Guanacaste. Wealth is better distributed there and economic growth is more inclusive than other cantons.

Although the economic production of Hojancha is small, it is transformed more efficiently into collective welfare. In comparison, there are other cantons that might have more tourism or more livestock producers, but they haven’t figured out how to benefit the people with that economic growth,” the expert explained.

The index, which was published in March, measures 12 components that are divided into areas such as health, education, environment, security, rights and freedoms and others. These are derived from data from the Census, Costa Rican Social Security, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Security and other national databases.

Hojancha scored a 79.21, while Moravia achieved the best score of 81.98. The canton of Talamanca got the worst rating of the country’s 81 cantons: 61.66.

Comments