Demographics of Costa Rica

According to the United Nations, Costa Rica had an estimated population of 5,265,575 people as of 2024. White and Mestizos make up 83.6% of the population, 7.8% are black people (including mixed race), 2.4% Amerindians, and 6.2% other/none.

In 2010, just under 3% of the population was of African descent. These are called Afro-Costa Ricans or West Indians and are English-speaking descendants of 19th-century black Jamaican immigrant workers. Another 1% is composed of those of Chinese origin, and less than 1% are West Asian, mainly of Lebanese descent but also Palestinians. The 2011 Census provided the following data: whites and mestizos make up 83.4% of the population, 7% are black people (including mixed race), 2.4% Amerindians, 0.2% Chinese, and 7% other/none.

Immigration to Costa Rica made up 9% of the population in 2012. This included permanent settlers as well as migrants who were hoping to reach the U.S. In 2015, there were some 420,000 immigrants in Costa Rica and the number of asylum seekers (mainly from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua) rose to more than 110,000. An estimated 10% of the Costa Rican population in 2014 was made up of Nicaraguans. There is also a community of North American retirees from the United States and Canada, followed by relatively large numbers of European Union expatriates (chiefly Scandinavians and from Germany) come to retire as well, and Australians.

Despite a low fertility rate of 1.67 children per woman (2024), the population still grows steadily due to immigration and a relatively young population.

The indigenous population today numbers about 60,000 (just over 1% of the population), with some Miskito and Garifuna (a population of mixed African and Carib Amerindian descent) living in the coastal regions.

Costa Rica's emigration is the smallest in the Caribbean Basin and is among the smallest in the Americas. By 2015 about just 133,185 (2.77%) of the country's people live in another country as immigrants. The main destination countries are the United States (85,924), Nicaragua (10,772), Panama (7,760), Canada (5,039), Spain (3,339), Mexico (2,464), Germany (1,891), Italy (1,508), Guatemala (1,162) and Venezuela (1,127).