Table 2.

Characteristics of the sample households and of migrant households to Costa Rica and the United States from five Nicaraguan communities

Variable	All Households	Non-Migrant Households	US Migrant Households*	CR Migrant Households*
Economic-political situation
Gross domestic product	21.42	21.42	20.46	20.87
Contra war activity	0.11	0.11	0.21	0.08
Demographic characteristics
Female head	0.34	0.34	0.36	0.31
Spouse present	0.56	0.56	0.56	0.55
Age of household	12.5	12.46	15.96	16.01
Age of spouse (if present)	33.61	33.56	39.6	35.58
Children ever born	4.67	4.67	4.39	4.78
Number of minors	2.37	2.37	1.66	2.12
Human capital
Head’s education	5.09	5.08	7.16	4.58
Spouse’s education	6.10	6.09	7.10	6.14
Head’s occupation
Agriculture	0.16	0.16	0.07	0.14
Unskilled manual	0.12	0.12	0.07	0.16
Domestic service	0.03	0.03	0.01	0.06
Other services	0.03	0.03	0.02	0.01
Skilled manual	0.17	0.17	0.12	0.19
Professional	0.21	0.21	0.42	0.17
Unemployed/not in LF	0.17	0.17	0.18	0.13
Spouse employed	0.43	0.43	0.42	0.39
Physical capital
Own home	0.60	0.60	0.73	0.57
Own land	0.07	0.07	0.10	0.05
Business owned	0.24	0.24	0.37	0.17
Social capital
No. family ties to US	0.16	0.16	0.67	0.12
No. family ties to C.R.	0.11	0.11	0.03	0.26
Community traits
La Piedad	0.21	0.21	0.29	0.19
San Juan	0.19	0.19	0.09	0.41
Lucena	0.20	0.20	0.44	0.14
Rosario	0.20	0.20	0.03	0.09
El Real	0.20	0.20	0.14	0.17
Paved road access to highway	0.55	0.55	0.54	0.81
Number of household years	18,702	18,465	98	139

^*Household characteristics during year prior to first trip.