Quality of life comparison
If you lived in California instead of Costa Rica, you would:
Economy
make 3.3 times more money
Costa Rica has a GDP per capita of $25,800 as of 2023, while in California, the GDP per capita is $84,028 as of 2024.
be 38.6% less likely to be unemployed
In Costa Rica, 8.3% of adults are unemployed as of 2023. In California, that number is 5.1% as of 2025.
be 54.1% less likely to live below the poverty line
In Costa Rica, 25.5% live below the poverty line as of 2022. In California, however, that number is 11.7% as of 2023.
Basic Needs
be 11.6% more likely to have internet access
In Costa Rica, approximately 83.0% of the population has internet access as of 2021. In California, about 92.6% do as of 2023.
The statistics above were calculated using the following data sources: The World Factbook, Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Census Bureau (American Community Survey), Bureau of Economic Analysis.
