Income inequality: Gini coefficient before and after tax in Costa Rica
Costa Rica: Income inequality: Gini coefficient before and after tax was 0.4602 in 2024. ▬ Flat
Income inequality: Gini coefficient before and after tax in Costa Rica, 2010–2024
Source: OECD (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data.
Analysis
Costa Rica recorded 0.4602 for income inequality: gini coefficient before and after tax in 2024. That is the lowest value across all 15 years on record.
The figure is down 2.1% on the previous year and down 5.1% over ten years.
Over the whole period, income inequality: gini coefficient before and after tax in Costa Rica peaked at 0.4967 in 2020 and was at its lowest, 0.4602, in 2024.
Costa Rica ranks 1st of 39 countries on this measure, in the top 10%.
Income inequality: Gini coefficient before and after tax in Costa Rica, year by year
| Year | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 0.4717 | — |
| 2011 | 0.4803 | +1.8% |
| 2012 | 0.4832 | +0.6% |
| 2013 | 0.4936 | +2.2% |
| 2014 | 0.4849 | -1.8% |
| 2015 | 0.4791 | -1.2% |
| 2016 | 0.4838 | +1.0% |
| 2017 | 0.4803 | -0.7% |
| 2018 | 0.479 | -0.3% |
| 2019 | 0.4784 | -0.1% |
| 2020 | 0.4967 | +3.8% |
| 2021 | 0.4873 | -1.9% |
| 2022 | 0.4719 | -3.2% |
| 2023 | 0.4703 | -0.3% |
| 2024 | 0.4602 | -2.1% |
Costa Rica compared with similar countries
- Costa Rica's 0.4602 is above the median for high income countries, which is 0.3076, 1.5× the median. (36 countries reporting)
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010s | 0.4814 | 0.4717 | 0.4936 | 10 |
| 2020s | 0.4773 | 0.4602 | 0.4967 | 5 |
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: gini coefficient before and after tax in Costa Rica?
- Income inequality: gini coefficient before and after tax in Costa Rica was 0.4602 in 2024, according to OECD (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest income inequality: gini coefficient before and after tax recorded in Costa Rica?
- The highest recorded value was 0.4967 in 2020.
- What is the lowest income inequality: gini coefficient before and after tax recorded in Costa Rica?
- The lowest recorded value was 0.4602 in 2024.
- How does Costa Rica rank for income inequality: gini coefficient before and after tax?
- Costa Rica ranks 1st out of 39 countries with data for 2024.
- Is income inequality: gini coefficient before and after tax rising or falling in Costa Rica?
- Over the last ten years it is down 5.1%. The long-run trend across the full record is flat.
- Where does this Costa Rica data come from?
- The figures come from OECD (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Income inequality: Gini coefficient before and after tax. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 15 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.