People & Blue Zones · Nicoya Peninsula, Guanacaste

Costa Rica Centenaria: New Support for Nicoya's Blue Zone Centenarians

In late July 2026, President Laura Fernández presented Costa Rica Centenaria, a government strategy led by the National Council for Older Persons to coordinate health care, housing, nutrition and social help for about 70 people over 100 on the Nicoya Peninsula. Its first visible result came in October, when the country's oldest documented citizen received a new home, while research shows Nicoya's longevity edge is fading in younger generations.

By Pura-Verde.com Editors · Published October 30, 2026
Original report: The Tico Times: Costa Rica Puts Its Blue Zone Centenarians on the Government Payroll (2026-07-26)

Costa Rica has spent two decades being famous for its centenarians. Now the government says it wants to take better care of them. In late July 2026, President Laura Fernández presented Costa Rica Centenaria, a strategy meant to bring health care, housing, nutrition and social help to the roughly 70 people over 100 who live in the Nicoya Peninsula Blue Zone.

What Costa Rica Centenaria is

The Tico Times reported on July 26 that the program is led by the National Council for Older Persons (CONAPAM), the agency created under the 1999 Comprehensive Law for Older Persons (Law 7935) and attached directly to the Presidency. Fernández presented it during a 3-day tour of Guanacaste that ended on the 202nd anniversary of the Annexation of the Partido de Nicoya, the July 25 holiday when the region joined Costa Rica. Acontecer reported that she unveiled it during a visit to Sardinal.

The idea is to make several institutions work as one around each centenarian:

• CCSS (the national health system): has started home visits, with doctors and nurses seeing centenarians where they live on a recurring basis, according to the Tico Times.
• BANHVI (the Housing Mortgage Bank): builds or replaces homes for those who need them.
• IMAS (the social assistance institute): assesses who qualifies for subsidies.
• Ministry of Health: checks living conditions and wellbeing over time.

The ministries of Labor and Human Development, other autonomous institutions and municipal governments in Nicoya, Hojancha, Nandayure, Santa Cruz and Carrillo are also part of the plan. In a rural region where simply getting to a clinic can be the hardest part of care for a 100-year-old, home visits are the program's most practical promise.

Coordinated care isn't brand new here. In July 2024, CCSS social workers, IMAS, the Municipality of Nicoya and the Asociación Península de Nicoya Zona Azul visited 21 centenarians in Nicoya canton to update their records and follow their care, El Mundo CR reported. Costa Rica Centenaria puts that kind of effort under a single national umbrella.

The first result: a home in Sardinal

The strategy's first housing commitment went to José Flores Flores of Sardinal de Carrillo, who by his Costa Rican documents was born July 11, 1907, and is the country's oldest documented citizen. In late October he received the keys to a new, furnished house, delivered through joint work by the housing ministry (MIVAH), CONAPAM, BANHVI and the Grupo Mutual housing lender, Diario Extra reported. His age has not been validated by Guinness World Records or any international longevity group, a story we cover in detail in José Flores Flores and his reported 119 years.

What hasn't been explained

The government hasn't published a budget for the program, how many home-visit teams it will staff, or how many more houses it plans to build. The Tico Times also noted it's unclear whether the strategy will address diabetes and diet changes among younger Nicoyans, which matter for the region's future.

Separating the Blue Zone from individual ages

It helps to keep two things apart. The Nicoya Blue Zone is a population finding: researchers compared death rates across thousands of people and found that older Nicoyans, especially men, lived unusually long. That's different from any one person's age, which needs its own documents and independent checks.

The population evidence is solid but shifting. In a 2023 study in Demographic Research, University of Costa Rica demographer Luis Rosero-Bixby used electoral records for about 550,000 adults alive between 1990 and 2020. He found Nicoyan men born in 1905 had about 33% lower adult mortality than other Costa Ricans, while those born in 1945 had about 10% higher. The hotspot has shrunk to a strip running from Hojancha toward Sámara.

His conclusion: the people born before 1930 still show exceptional longevity, but the window to meet and study them is closing. Seen that way, Costa Rica Centenaria is less about building a legend and more about caring well for the last members of a remarkable generation.

What it means for visitors

Nicoya's longevity draws curious travelers, and plenty of tours now promise a Blue Zone experience. The centenarians themselves are private people, many frail. If you visit the peninsula, the respectful way to learn is through community-run projects and local guides, not by seeking out elders at home. Our directory lists community and eco-lodge options across Guanacaste.

Frequently asked questions

What is Costa Rica Centenaria?

It's a government strategy presented in July 2026 and led by CONAPAM to coordinate health care, housing, nutrition and social assistance for centenarians, starting with about 70 people over 100 on the Nicoya Peninsula.

How many centenarians live in the Nicoya Blue Zone?

The Tico Times put the number at about 70 people over age 100 across Nicoya, Hojancha, Nandayure, Santa Cruz and Carrillo in July 2026.

Is Nicoya still a Blue Zone?

Yes, but a 2023 study by Luis Rosero-Bixby found the longevity advantage is fading in generations born after about 1930, and the hotspot has shrunk to an area from Hojancha toward Sámara.

Why do people in Nicoya live so long?

Researchers have studied diet, family and social ties, and lifelong physical work, and the answer is still debated. President Fernández credited diet, social environment and constant physical activity when she presented the strategy.

Sources and original reporting

1. The Tico Times: Costa Rica Puts Its Blue Zone Centenarians on the Government Payroll (2026-07-26)
2. Acontecer: Laura Fernández destaca iniciativa para proteger a las personas centenarias durante visita a Guanacaste (2026-07-24)
3. Diario Extra: Así es la nueva casa del hombre más longevo de Costa Rica (October 2026)
4. Demographic Research: The vanishing advantage of longevity in Nicoya, Costa Rica: A cohort shift (2023-10-18)
5. El Mundo CR: Centenarios de Nicoya reciben atención integral en el Bicentenario de la Anexión (2024-07-24)
6. CONAPAM official site

We wrote this story from the published reports and official sources above. We didn't interview the people named unless the story says so.