---
title: "Is Costa Rica a Good Place to Live? — Geo-Parity"
description: "Costa Rica (San Jose): 216.8 Mbps internet, safety 0/100, healthcare 84/100 — essentials ≈ $1,287/month, so $3k lives \"very comfortable\". Full quality-vs-cost breakdown."
canonical: "https://geo-parity.com/livability/costa-rica/"
json: "https://geo-parity.com/api/livability.json"
generator: geo-parity markdown twin
---
Livability · rank 86/167

# Is 🇨🇷 Costa Rica (San Jose) a good place to live?

Quality score **62/100** against essentials of **$1,287/month**.

## The five metrics

Internet 87 216.8 Mbps median broadband, 87.2% online

Safety 0 17.7 homicides/100k (2023)

Healthcare 84 UHC service coverage 84/100 (2023)

Air quality 76 PM2.5 15.6 µg/m³ (2023)

## Beside the score, not inside it

Neither of these is part of the composite above, deliberately. Folding governance into a quality-of-life number would bury a political judgement where you could not see it or argue with it, and connection *price* is a different question from connection *speed* — somewhere fast and expensive and somewhere slow and cheap are different trade-offs, not one average.

- **Rule of law**: strong
- World Bank WGI estimate 0.62 · corruption control 0.68 · stability 1.18 (2024). Scale −2.5 to +2.5, higher is better.
- **What connectivity costs**: $41.93 /mo broadband
- Mobile 10GB $22.3/month. ITU price basket. The speed above is scored; this price is not.

## What your budget buys

| Monthly budget | vs essentials ($1,287) | Verdict |
| --- | --- | --- |
| $2,000 | 1.6× | very comfortable |
| $3,000 | 2.3× | very comfortable |
| $5,000 | 3.9× | like royalty |

Essentials from the [Pint & Property basket](https://geo-parity.com/expenses/?tab=prices). Rank countries by your own priorities in the [interactive matrix](https://geo-parity.com/livability/).

🛂 **Digital Nomad Visa** — income floor ≈ $3,000/month. [Visa finder →](https://geo-parity.com/nomad-visas/)

## Similar value-for-money

- [🇮🇪 Ireland](https://geo-parity.com/livability/ireland/) — quality 92.1, essentials $1,922/mo
- [🇧🇪 Belgium](https://geo-parity.com/livability/belgium/) — quality 88.4, essentials $1,851/mo
- [🇲🇽 Mexico](https://geo-parity.com/livability/mexico/) — quality 53, essentials $1,122/mo
- [🇸🇪 Sweden](https://geo-parity.com/livability/sweden/) — quality 91.4, essentials $1,945/mo

See also: [everyday prices](https://geo-parity.com/ppp/costa-rica/) · [retiring in Costa Rica](https://geo-parity.com/fire/costa-rica/)

## Frequently asked questions

- **Is Costa Rica a good place to live for remote workers?**: Costa Rica scores 62/100 on our equal-weighted livability composite (internet 216.8 Mbps, safety 0, healthcare 84, air quality 76; English not scored) — rank 86 of 167.
- **How fast is the internet in Costa Rica?**: Median fixed broadband is around 216.8 Mbps.
- **What does $3,000/month get you in Costa Rica?**: Single-person essentials run about $1,287/month at local prices, so $3,000 lives "very comfortable" (2.3× essentials).

Safety, healthcare and air quality are objective figures from the World Bank (homicide rate, life expectancy) and WHO (PM2.5); internet speed and English are curated. City variation is real — verify locally. Agents: GET /api/livability.json?budget=3000.

---

Source: Geo-Parity — https://geo-parity.com/livability/costa-rica/ · JSON: https://geo-parity.com/api/livability.json