Quality of life comparison
If you lived in New Jersey instead of Costa Rica, you would:
Economy
be 34.2% less likely to be unemployed
In Costa Rica, 6.8% of the labor force is unemployed as of 2025. In New Jersey, that number is 4.5% as of 2025.
be 45.6% less likely to live below the poverty line
In Costa Rica, 17.1% live below the poverty line as of 2025. In New Jersey, however, that number is 9.3% as of 2023.
make 3.5 times more money
Costa Rica has a GDP per capita of $19,970 as of 2025, while in New Jersey, the GDP per capita is $70,788 as of 2024.
Sources: World Bank (2025), Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025), US Census Bureau (American Community Survey) (2023), Bureau of Economic Analysis (2024). How we calculate this
