Income inequality vs. GDP per capita in Costa Rica
Costa Rica: Income inequality vs. GDP per capita was 0.4546 in 2025. ▲ Rising
Income inequality vs. GDP per capita in Costa Rica, 1981–2025
Source: World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data.
Analysis
Costa Rica recorded 0.4546 for income inequality vs. gdp per capita in 2025.
Compared with earlier readings it is down 0.8% on the previous year and down 6.0% over ten years.
Over the whole period, income inequality vs. gdp per capita in Costa Rica peaked at 0.5181 in 2002 and was at its lowest, 0.3441, in 1986.
Costa Rica ranks 11th of 120 countries on this measure, in the top 10%.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 39 years of available data.
Income inequality vs. GDP per capita in Costa Rica, year by year
| Year | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1981 | 0.4749 | — |
| 1986 | 0.3441 | -27.5% |
| 1989 | 0.4546 | +32.1% |
| 1990 | 0.4521 | -0.6% |
| 1991 | 0.4655 | +3.0% |
| 1992 | 0.4564 | -2.0% |
| 1993 | 0.4593 | +0.6% |
| 1994 | 0.467 | +1.7% |
| 1995 | 0.4566 | -2.2% |
| 1996 | 0.4648 | +1.8% |
| 1997 | 0.4558 | -1.9% |
| 1998 | 0.4564 | +0.1% |
| 1999 | 0.4763 | +4.4% |
| 2000 | 0.4741 | -0.5% |
| 2001 | 0.5151 | +8.6% |
| 2002 | 0.5181 | +0.6% |
| 2003 | 0.493 | -4.8% |
| 2004 | 0.4842 | -1.8% |
| 2005 | 0.4751 | -1.9% |
| 2006 | 0.4928 | +3.7% |
| 2007 | 0.4931 | +0.1% |
| 2008 | 0.4864 | -1.4% |
| 2009 | 0.5055 | +3.9% |
| 2010 | 0.4804 | -5.0% |
| 2011 | 0.4876 | +1.5% |
| 2012 | 0.4842 | -0.7% |
| 2013 | 0.4915 | +1.5% |
| 2014 | 0.4863 | -1.1% |
| 2015 | 0.4837 | -0.5% |
| 2016 | 0.487 | +0.7% |
| 2017 | 0.4835 | -0.7% |
| 2018 | 0.4797 | -0.8% |
| 2019 | 0.4819 | +0.5% |
| 2020 | 0.4924 | +2.2% |
| 2021 | 0.4868 | -1.2% |
| 2022 | 0.4715 | -3.1% |
| 2023 | 0.4673 | -0.9% |
| 2024 | 0.4583 | -1.9% |
| 2025 | 0.4546 | -0.8% |
Costa Rica compared with similar countries
- Costa Rica's 0.4546 is above the median for high income countries, which is 0.3209, 1.4× the median. (42 countries reporting)
- Costa Rica's 0.4546 is above the median for Latin America & Caribbean, which is 0.4447, 1.0× the median. (18 countries reporting)
Biggest year-on-year movements
Years where Income inequality vs. GDP per capita in Costa Rica changed far more than this series normally does. A large move can be a real event or a change in how the figure was measured — the source note below says who published it.
| Year | Change | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | +32.1% | 0.3441 | 0.4546 |
| 1986 | -27.5% | 0.4749 | 0.3441 |
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980s | 0.4246 | 0.3441 | 0.4749 | 3 |
| 1990s | 0.461 | 0.4521 | 0.4763 | 10 |
| 2000s | 0.4937 | 0.4741 | 0.5181 | 10 |
| 2010s | 0.4846 | 0.4797 | 0.4915 | 10 |
| 2020s | 0.4718 | 0.4546 | 0.4924 | 6 |
Countries ranked near Costa Rica
More poverty & inequality data for Costa Rica
- Number of income/consumption surveys in the past decade available via the World Bank 10 surveys (2025)
- Number of income/consumption surveys in the past decade available via 0 surveys per person (2025)
- Number of income/consumption surveys in the past decade available via 0 surveys per US$ of GDP (2025)
- Fertility rate vs. share living in extreme poverty 1.33 live births per woman (2023)
- Cereal yield vs. share in extreme poverty 3,807 kg per hectare (2024)
- Cereal yield vs extreme poverty, per unit of GDP 0 units per US$ of GDP (2024)
- Cereal yield vs extreme poverty, annual growth rate -14.41 % change on previous year (2024)
- Tax revenues vs income inequality, gaps filled 24.93 (2023)
- Tax revenue as share of GDP vs. income inequality 24.9% (2023)
- Tax revenues vs income inequality, per unit of GDP 0 units per US$ of GDP (2023)
Frequently asked questions
- What is income inequality vs. gdp per capita in Costa Rica?
- Income inequality vs. gdp per capita in Costa Rica was 0.4546 in 2025, according to World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest income inequality vs. gdp per capita recorded in Costa Rica?
- The highest recorded value was 0.5181 in 2002.
- What is the lowest income inequality vs. gdp per capita recorded in Costa Rica?
- The lowest recorded value was 0.3441 in 1986.
- How does Costa Rica rank for income inequality vs. gdp per capita?
- Costa Rica ranks 11th out of 120 countries with data for 2025.
- Is income inequality vs. gdp per capita rising or falling in Costa Rica?
- Over the last ten years it is down 6.0%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this Costa Rica data come from?
- The figures come from World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Income inequality vs. GDP per capita. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 39 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).
About this data
The Gini coefficient measures inequality on a scale from 0 to 1. Higher values indicate higher inequality.