Country size comparison

compared to

South Africa is about 24 times bigger than Costa Rica.

Costa Rica is approximately 51,100 sq km, while South Africa is approximately 1,219,090 sq km, making South Africa 2,286% larger than Costa Rica. Meanwhile, the population of Costa Rica is ~5.2 million people (52.3 million more people live in South Africa).
Tip: This to-scale comparison of Costa Rica vs. South Africa uses the Mercator projection, which distorts the size of regions near the poles.
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Compare further: South Africa vs. Costa Rica

Flip Comparison · See true size
See South Africa on top of Costa Rica
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Quality of Life Comparison · 11 statistics
Make 80.4% more money in Costa Rica
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Cost of Living Comparison · 7 categories - 2026 data
Costa Rica is 67.9% more expensive than South Africa overall
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Moving from South Africa to Costa Rica · UN DESA 2020
67 people born in South Africa live in Costa Rica.
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