Czechia
Latest Average Wage
+3.0% · 5 years
$43,607
Country Comparison
Czechia vs Costa Rica
Compare average wages, long-term wage changes and eight consumer price categories using OECD data.
At a Glance
Czechia
vs
Costa Rica
$43,6072025
Latest Average Wage
Costa Rica +1.9%
(vs Czechia)
$44,4312024
+3.0%2025
5-Year Wage Change
Costa Rica +1.9 pts
(vs Czechia)
+4.9%2024
+22.2%2025
10-Year Wage Change
Czechia +0.3 pts
(vs Costa Rica)
+21.9%2024
52.92024
Overall Price Level
Costa Rica +8.4 index points
(vs Czechia)
61.32024
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
Costa Rica
Latest Average Wage
+4.9% · 5 years
$44,431
Wage Milestones
Czechia
10 Years Ago
$35,686 (2015)
Historical Peak
$43,607 (2025)
Latest Wage
$43,607 (2025)
Costa Rica
10 Years Ago
$36,459 (2014)
Historical Peak
$46,398 (2020)
Latest Wage
$44,431 (2024)
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
Czechia (CZE)Costa Rica (CRI)
Overall
−8.4 index points
100
52.9vs61.3
Food
−31.8 index points
100
75.2vs107
Clothing
+6.1 index points
100
84.5vs78.4
Housing
+27.6 index points
100
58.1vs30.5
Health
−41.7 index points
100
25.3vs67
Transport
+0.2 index points
100
86.5vs86.3
Recreation
−14.2 index points
100
65vs79.2
Restaurants & Accommodation
−13.3 index points
100
60.5vs73.8
What Stands Out
01
Latest Wage Gap
Costa Rica's latest average wage is $44,431 for 2024, about 1.9% higher than Czechia's $43,607 for 2025 — a percentage worked out directly from the two reported figures. In annual terms the gap comes to about $824 on the same PPP basis. The two figures come from different reference years.
02
Stronger Recent Trend
On the latest one-year change, Czechia shows the stronger movement at +3.9%, against 0.0% for Costa Rica. The five-year horizon reverses the ordering — Czechia at +3.0% and Costa Rica at +4.9% — 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: 25.3 for Czechia against 67 for Costa Rica. That is a separation of 41.7 index points on the US=100 scale, with Costa Rica on the higher side and Czechia on the lower one. Index points are not percentages; the two scales answer different questions.
04
Closest Price Category
The closest category is Transport: Czechia reads 86.5 and Costa Rica 86.3 for 2024 — effectively the same relative price level on the US=100 scale. The next closest is Clothing at 6.1 index points apart. Closeness here describes the index readings only, not the baskets behind them.
Understanding the Comparison
Wage Position
Czechia and Costa Rica report nearly the same PPP-adjusted average annual wage: $44,431 for 2024, against $43,607 for 2025. The difference is 1.9% in relative terms — a percentage calculated from the two reported values — or roughly $824 a year, which is small next to either figure. Because both values already sit on the same USD PPP, constant-2025-price footing, the comparison adjusts for price-level differences between the two economies. The reference years differ — 2025 for Czechia and 2024 for Costa Rica — so part of the gap reflects timing rather than level, and the two records are kept separate. For most side-by-side readings the two wage levels can be treated as equivalent within this dataset.
Wage Direction
The five-year direction is shared here: both series rise, with different momentum on each side. Czechia sits at the highest point of its series — $43,607 in 2025 is also the historical peak, with a ten-year change of +22.2%. Costa Rica has barely moved in the latest year (0.0%), while the ten-year change stands at +21.9%. The shared direction still leaves room for different speeds: +4.9% for Costa Rica against +3.0% for Czechia, 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
Czechia's overall consumer price level for 2024 reads 52.9, and Costa Rica's reads 61.3, each measured against the United States reference of 100. Neither country is uniformly higher: Czechia leads in 2 of the 8 comparable categories and Costa Rica in 5, so the profile splits by category rather than by country. The widest separation is in Health: 25.3 for Czechia against 67 for Costa Rica, a gap of 41.7 index points. At the other end, Transport brings the two closest — 86.5 versus 86.3, a gap of just 0.2 index points. Relative to the US benchmark, Czechia reads above 100 in 0 of its 8 reported categories, and Costa Rica in 1 of its 8.
Wage and price data should not be combined into a verdict on which country is better to live in.
