Costa Rica Population

Costa Rica pairs one of Latin America's lowest fertility rates, now around 1.3 children per woman, with some of its longest life expectancy, past 80 years and famously higher still on the Nicoya peninsula. Immigration, above all from Nicaragua, cushions the low birth rate for now. The projection has the population peaking in the mid-2040s, early for the region.

With roughly 5.2 million people as of 2026, Costa Rica ranks 127th in the world by population. A country of Central America, its trajectory to 2100 is governed by how births, deaths and migration play out. It packs in roughly 101 people per square kilometre.

Growth continues for Costa Rica until around 2045, the year its population is set to crest at about 5.4 million. From there a slow fall takes it to roughly 3.8 million by century's end.

The median age is set to climb from about 35 today to roughly 56 by 2100, while life expectancy, near 81 years, keeps rising. That ageing slowly changes everything from the size of the workforce to the cost of care and pensions.

Fertility sits at about 1.32 births per woman, below the replacement level of roughly 2.1, so without migration the population would eventually shrink.

The trajectory above is the UN's medium scenario. Wars, policy shifts, economic change and migration can all move the numbers, but the broad shape, growth followed by an eventual peak, is robust across the main variants.