Costa Rica
Latest Average Wage
+4.9% · 5 years
$44,431
Country Comparison
Costa Rica vs South Korea
Compare average wages, long-term wage changes and eight consumer price categories using OECD data.
At a Glance
Costa Rica
vs
South Korea
$44,4312024
Latest Average Wage
South Korea +37.9%
(vs Costa Rica)
$61,2592025
+4.9%2024
5-Year Wage Change
Costa Rica +1.8 pts
(vs South Korea)
+3.1%2025
+21.9%2024
10-Year Wage Change
Costa Rica +3.5 pts
(vs South Korea)
+18.3%2025
61.32024
Overall Price Level
Costa Rica +1.2 index points
(vs South Korea)
60.12024
Wages are PPP-adjusted average annual wages; price levels use the United States reference of 100. Years shown are each country's latest reported observation.
How Wages Have Changed
Follow PPP-adjusted average annual wages in constant prices across both economies.
USD PPP, constant prices · missing years shown as gaps, never interpolated
South Korea
Latest Average Wage
+3.1% · 5 years
$61,259
Wage Milestones
Costa Rica
10 Years Ago
$36,459 (2014)
Historical Peak
$46,398 (2020)
Latest Wage
$44,431 (2024)
South Korea
10 Years Ago
$51,769 (2015)
Historical Peak
$61,259 (2025)
Latest Wage
$61,259 (2025)
Compare Everyday Price Levels
See how eight consumer price categories compare with the United States reference value of 100.
United States = 100 · Differences shown in index points
Costa Rica (CRI)South Korea (KOR)
Overall
+1.2 index points
100
61.3vs60.1
Food
−29.0 index points
100
107vs136
Clothing
−24.6 index points
100
78.4vs103
Housing
−7.5 index points
100
30.5vs38
Health
+30.0 index points
100
67vs37
Transport
+12.5 index points
100
86.3vs73.8
Recreation
+7.6 index points
100
79.2vs71.6
Restaurants & Accommodation
−8.6 index points
100
73.8vs82.4
What Stands Out
01
Latest Wage Gap
South Korea's latest average wage is $61,259 for 2025, about 37.9% higher than Costa Rica's $44,431 for 2024 — a relative difference calculated from the two reported values. That is roughly $16,828 a year on the same PPP basis. The two figures come from different reference years.
02
Stronger Recent Trend
On the latest one-year change, South Korea shows the stronger movement at +0.6%, against 0.0% for Costa Rica. The five-year horizon reverses the ordering — Costa Rica at +4.9% and South Korea at +3.1% — so the latest year is not the whole story. Both percentages are real, PPP-adjusted changes from the reported wage series.
03
Largest Price Gap
Health shows the widest price gap of the comparable categories in 2024: 67 for Costa Rica against 37 for South Korea. Measured on the US=100 scale, the two readings for this category are 30.0 index points apart, Costa Rica above South Korea. Index points are not percentages; the two scales answer different questions.
04
Closest Price Category
The closest category is Overall: Costa Rica reads 61.3 and South Korea 60.1 for 2024, just 1.2 index points apart on the US=100 scale. The next closest is Housing at 7.5 index points apart. Closeness here describes the index readings only, not the baskets behind them.
Understanding the Comparison
Wage Position
A clear separation shows in the latest wage figures — South Korea at $61,259 for 2025, and Costa Rica at $44,431 for 2024. The higher figure exceeds the lower one by 37.9% in relative terms — a percentage calculated from the two reported values — or roughly $16,828 a year. Both figures are expressed in USD PPP at constant 2025 prices, so they can be set side by side without any further conversion. For scale, neither series has moved by that much within any single reported year, so the gap is structural rather than the product of one unusual observation.
Wage Direction
The five-year direction is shared here: both series rise, with different momentum on each side. Costa Rica has barely moved in the latest year (0.0%), while the ten-year change stands at +21.9%. South Korea sits at the highest point of its series — $61,259 in 2025 is also the historical peak, with a ten-year change of +18.3%. The shared direction still leaves room for different speeds: +4.9% for Costa Rica against +3.1% for South Korea, so the distance between the two levels keeps shifting. All changes here are measured in real, PPP-adjusted terms, so they describe purchasing-power movement rather than nominal pay increases.
Price Profile
Costa Rica's overall consumer price level for 2024 reads 61.3, and South Korea's reads 60.1, each measured against the United States reference of 100. Neither country is uniformly higher: Costa Rica leads in 4 of the 8 comparable categories and South Korea in 4, so the profile splits by category rather than by country. The widest separation is in Health: 67 for Costa Rica against 37 for South Korea, a gap of 30.0 index points. At the other end, Overall brings the two closest — 61.3 versus 60.1, a gap of just 1.2 index points. Relative to the US benchmark, Costa Rica reads above 100 in 1 of its 8 reported categories, and South Korea in 2 of its 8.
Wage and price data should not be combined into a verdict on which country is better to live in.
