As of 2021, Costa Rica has a population of 5.1 million, making it the 120th largest country in the world by this measure. There are 49.9% males and 50.1% females.

There are 2.2 million people employed in Costa Rica, with an unemployment rate of 7.8% – 176,485 people.


Costa Rica is the 205th largest economy in the world with a GDP of $58.2bn.

As of 2018 there were 216,700 students in tertiary education in Costa Rica, with 476,668 students in secondary and 483,770 in primary education. Costa Rica spent 7.1% of its GDP on education in 2019.

Costa Rica ranked 74th in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report (2020). In the 2019 report it finished 67th. In the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report (2019), Costa Rica finished 62nd, after ranking 62nd in 2018.

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Public healthcare expenditure totalled $3.4bn and private healthcare expenditure equalled $1.1bn in 2018.