Living in Costa Rica

Costa Rica reads differently from the islands around it, since alongside the expected tourism it has built a real foothold in IT, giving its economy more than one leg to stand on. Pay sits high by world standards and tax takes little, and with costs that are elevated but not punishing, a solid margin remains once life is paid for. English opens doors in tech and tourism but doesn't carry everywhere, so Spanish matters more the deeper you go. The market doesn't hand jobs to outsiders, though the tech side is where a newcomer's odds run best.

Costa Rica's arrivals come overwhelmingly from one country. Of its roughly 608K foreign-born residents — 12% of the population — 423.4K were born in neighboring Nicaragua, far ahead of any other origin. The foreign-born population has grown 53% over the decade, and with a diaspora of only about 51,000 abroad, Costa Rica is firmly a regional destination, its inflow anchored by movement across the Nicaraguan border.