Costa Rica: population and ages

In mid-1950 there were 927,000 people, so the population is now 5.6 times as large.

The UN projects 50,200 births and 29,900 deaths in 2026, 20,300 more births than deaths.

The UN projects the first year with more deaths than births in 2044.

The median age is 35.7, which is 4.6 years above the world’s 31.1.

18% of the people are under 15 and 13% are 65 or older (world: 24% and 11%).

The UN projects that people aged 65 and over will outnumber children under 15 from 2031.

Women have 1.3 children on average at today’s rates (world: 2.2), against 6.3 in 1950.

Life expectancy at birth is 81.4 years, above the world’s 73.8. In 1950 it was 57.5.

For mid-2050 the UN projects 5.35 million people, 3.5% more than now, with a median age of 47.0.

By the death rates of 2023, life expectancy at birth was 80.8 years. People who had reached 65 could expect 22.1 more years for women and 19.2 for men.

On 1 January 2026, there are 18.9 people aged 65 or more for every 100 aged 15 to 64. For 2050, the UN projects 40.0.

For 2100 the UN projects a population of 3.78 million, with a 95 percent prediction interval of 2.2 million to 5.74 million.

Life expectancy at birth is a period measure. It sums up the death rates of one year and is not a forecast of how long the babies born that year will live.

In mid-2024, 628,000 international migrants lived here, 12.2% of the population.

In mid-2024, 51,000 people from here lived in other countries.