Costa Rica

Abstract

Poverty in Costa Rica increased from 16.5% in 2016 to 19.4% in 2020, partly owing to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, remaining below the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) average of 26.3%. Extreme poverty slightly decreased over that period from 4.2% to 4.0% and remained below the LAC average (8.7%). The population living in completely informal households remained constant at 26.9% in 2010 and 27.0% in 2019, below the LAC average of 36.3% in 2018. Regarding environmental indicators, in 2019, total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita were 3.1 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (t CO2e), lower than the averages for LAC (6.3) and countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (9.1). That year, the share of the population exposed to air pollution levels that pose risks to human health (PM2.5 at more than 10 µg/m3) was 99.9%, higher than 95.2% for LAC and 61.0% for the OECD. The marine protected area accounted for 2.7% of its territorial waters at the beginning of 2021, compared to 7.3% for LAC and 18.6% for the OECD. In December 2021, the government signed a decree that expands the protected marine area of the Area de Conservación Marina Coco to 161 129 km2, thereby increasing the national marine protected area to 30% of territorial waters. On the fiscal side, environmentally related tax revenue was 2.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019, above both LAC (1.0% in 2020) and the OECD (2.1% in 2020). Total tax revenue as a percentage of GDP (22.9%) remains higher than the average for LAC (21.9%), but lower than the OECD (33.5%).