Costa Rica

GDP/capita CAGR

5.2%

Unemployment (2025)

6.8%

Gini index (2025)

45.5

CO2/capita (2024)

1.6 t

Costa Rica: strong, sustained growth, 1980–2025

A stable democracy that abolished its military in 1948, Costa Rica built a services- and technology-manufacturing-oriented economy alongside globally recognized ecotourism, avoiding many of the crises common to its neighbors. Between 1980 and 2025, Costa Rica's GDP per capita grew from $2,021 to $19,970 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of 5.2% — strong, sustained growth. Annual GDP growth averaged 3.8% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 3.0 points, reflecting relatively stable macroeconomic conditions. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 17.8% to 3.4% of GDP (a classic decline as the economy industrialized/modernized), while services rose from 55.2% to 69.2% of GDP, underscoring a shift toward a services-driven economy. On human development, life expectancy rose from 73.0 to 81.0 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 25.8% to 55.0%, while the urban population share grew from 42.9% to 79.7%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions rose from 1.04 to 1.63 tonnes CO2e per person; income inequality (Gini index) narrowed from 47.5 to 45.5; the poverty headcount ratio fell from 33.5% to 0.8%.

What it trades

Top exported and imported products, approximate share of total trade value.

Top exports

Optical, photographic, cinematographic, measuring, checking, precision, medical or surgical ...48.4%

Edible fruit and nuts; peel of citrus fruit or melons11.9%

Miscellaneous edible preparations5.1%

Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof; sound recorders and reproducers, television ...4.2%

Pharmaceutical products2.4%

Preparations of vegetables, fruit, nuts or other parts of plants2.4%

Plastics and articles thereof2.3%

Coffee, tea, maté and spices2.1%

Rubber and articles thereof1.5%

Animal, vegetable or microbial fats and oils and their cleavage products; prepared edible fats; ...1.5%

Top imports

Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof; sound recorders and reproducers, television ...9.8%

Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances; parts thereof9.0%

Mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation; bituminous substances; mineral ...8.6%

Vehicles other than railway or tramway rolling stock, and parts and accessories thereof8.3%

Plastics and articles thereof7.2%

Optical, photographic, cinematographic, measuring, checking, precision, medical or surgical ...6.3%

Pharmaceutical products5.6%

Iron and steel3.6%

Paper and paperboard; articles of paper pulp, of paper or of paperboard3.2%

Articles of iron or steel2.3%

Events shaping this economy

Central bank perspective

Why the charts below look the way they do, drawing on the country’s own central bank and monetary authority.

Leading companies in Costa Rica

Banco Nacional de Costa Rica · Banking FIFCO · Consumer Grupo Numar · Consumer Banco de Costa Rica · Banking Grupo Purdy Motor · Automotive