Costa Rica
Latest Average Wage
+4.9% · 5 years
$44,431
Country Comparison
Costa Rica vs United States
Compare average wages, long-term wage changes and eight consumer price categories using OECD data.
At a Glance
Costa Rica
vs
United States
$44,4312024
Latest Average Wage
United States +95.8%
(vs Costa Rica)
$86,9772025
+4.9%2024
5-Year Wage Change
Costa Rica +2.8 pts
(vs United States)
+2.1%2025
+21.9%2024
10-Year Wage Change
Costa Rica +8.9 pts
(vs United States)
+13.0%2025
61.32024
Overall Price Level
United States +38.7 index points
(vs Costa Rica)
1002024
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
United States
Latest Average Wage
+2.1% · 5 years
$86,977
Wage Milestones
Costa Rica
10 Years Ago
$36,459 (2014)
Historical Peak
$46,398 (2020)
Latest Wage
$44,431 (2024)
United States
10 Years Ago
$76,999 (2015)
Historical Peak
$86,977 (2025)
Latest Wage
$86,977 (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)United States (USA)
Overall
−38.7 index points
100
61.3vs100
Food
+7.0 index points
100
107vs100
Clothing
−21.6 index points
100
78.4vs100
Housing
−69.5 index points
100
30.5vs100
Health
−33.0 index points
100
67vs100
Transport
−13.7 index points
100
86.3vs100
Recreation
−20.8 index points
100
79.2vs100
Restaurants & Accommodation
−26.2 index points
100
73.8vs100
What Stands Out
01
Latest Wage Gap
United States' latest average wage is $86,977 for 2025, about 95.8% higher than Costa Rica's $44,431 for 2024 — a percentage worked out directly from the two reported figures. That is roughly $42,546 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, United States shows the stronger movement at +1.7%, against 0.0% for Costa Rica. The five-year horizon reverses the ordering — Costa Rica at +4.9% and United States at +2.1% — 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
Housing shows the widest price gap of the comparable categories in 2024: 30.5 for Costa Rica against 100 for United States. That is a separation of 69.5 index points on the US=100 scale, with United States on the higher side and Costa Rica on the lower one. The gap is stated in index points, which are not interchangeable with percentages.
04
Closest Price Category
The closest category is Food: Costa Rica reads 107 and United States 100 for 2024, just 7.0 index points apart on the US=100 scale. The next closest is Transport at 13.7 index points apart. A gap this small leaves the category effectively tied on the shared US=100 scale.
Understanding the Comparison
Wage Position
The wage levels in this pairing are far apart: United States reports $86,977 for 2025, while Costa Rica reports $44,431 for 2024. The higher figure exceeds the lower one by 95.8% in relative terms — a percentage calculated from the two reported values — or roughly $42,546 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
Both wage series rise over the five-year horizon, though not at the same pace. Costa Rica has barely moved in the latest year (0.0%), while the ten-year change stands at +21.9%. United States sits at the highest point of its series — $86,977 in 2025 is also the historical peak, with a ten-year change of +13.0%. Costa Rica's five-year change of +4.9% outpaces United States' +2.1% in magnitude, so the common direction does not mean the two levels are holding a fixed distance. Each percentage is a real, PPP-adjusted change; nominal pay movements are outside what this dataset reports.
Price Profile
Costa Rica's overall consumer price level for 2024 reads 61.3, and United States' reads 100, each measured against the United States reference of 100. One side of this pairing dominates the price profile: United States sits higher in 7 of the 8 comparable categories. Housing separates the two most: Costa Rica reads 30.5 and United States 100, 69.5 index points apart. The two sit closest in Food (107 versus 100), only 7.0 index points apart. Counted against the US reference of 100, 1 of Costa Rica's 8 reported categories sit above the line, against 0 of United States' 8.
Wage and price data should not be combined into a verdict on which country is better to live in.
