Quality of life comparison
If you lived in West Virginia instead of Costa Rica, you would:
Health
be 23.9% more likely to be obese
In Costa Rica, 32.7% of adults are obese as of 2024. In West Virginia, that number is 40.5% of people as of 2022.
Economy
be 35.7% less likely to be unemployed
In Costa Rica, 6.8% of the labor force is unemployed as of 2025. In West Virginia, that number is 4.4% as of 2025.
make 2.3 times more money
Costa Rica has a GDP per capita of $19,970 as of 2025, while in West Virginia, the GDP per capita is $46,834 as of 2024.
Sources: World Bank (2025), World Health Organization (2024), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (PLACES) (2022), Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025), Bureau of Economic Analysis (2024). How we calculate this
