81.1
years, 2025
Moderate trust, 63 of 100 Only OECD counts, so it cannot be checked against another source. The other 3 sources shown do not count; "Where the number comes from" says why.
- UN WPP
- WHO
- OECD
Recorded change in how a source reports; hover or focus the ring for details.
Show the data as a table
| Year | UN World Population Prospects 2024 | WHO Global Health Estimates, life expectancy at birth (WHOSIS_000001) | OECD Health Statistics, life expectancy (DF_LE) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 57.46 | – | – |
| 1951 | 57.82 | – | – |
| 1952 | 58.11 | – | – |
| 1953 | 59.06 | – | – |
| 1954 | 59.85 | – | – |
| 1955 | 60.45 | – | – |
| 1956 | 61.2 | – | – |
| 1957 | 61.58 | – | – |
| 1958 | 62.26 | – | – |
| 1959 | 62.91 | – | – |
| 1960 | 63.46 | – | 60.4 |
| 1961 | 63.86 | – | 61 |
| 1962 | 64.23 | – | 61.6 |
| 1963 | 64.33 | – | 62.2 |
| 1964 | 64.49 | – | 62.8 |
| 1965 | 64.76 | – | 63.3 |
| 1966 | 65.1 | – | 63.9 |
| 1967 | 65.55 | – | 64.4 |
| 1968 | 65.78 | – | 64.8 |
| 1969 | 66.36 | – | 65.3 |
| 1970 | 66.79 | – | 65.8 |
| 1971 | 67.41 | – | 66.4 |
| 1972 | 68.01 | – | 66.9 |
| 1973 | 68.73 | – | 67.5 |
| 1974 | 69.45 | – | 68.2 |
| 1975 | 70.25 | – | 68.8 |
| 1976 | 70.95 | – | 69.5 |
| 1977 | 71.52 | – | 70.2 |
| 1978 | 72.03 | – | 70.9 |
| 1979 | 72.54 | – | 71.5 |
| 1980 | 73.03 | – | 72.1 |
| 1981 | 73.44 | – | 72.7 |
| 1982 | 73.86 | – | 73.2 |
| 1983 | 74.25 | – | 73.7 |
| 1984 | 74.58 | – | 74.1 |
| 1985 | 74.76 | – | 74.4 |
| 1986 | 74.95 | – | 74.7 |
| 1987 | 75.22 | – | 75 |
| 1988 | 75.55 | – | 75.2 |
| 1989 | 75.85 | – | 75.5 |
| 1990 | 76.09 | – | 75.7 |
| 1991 | 76.24 | – | 75.8 |
| 1992 | 76.38 | – | 76 |
| 1993 | 76.32 | – | 76.2 |
| 1994 | 76.33 | – | 76.4 |
| 1995 | 76.44 | – | 76.6 |
| 1996 | 76.43 | – | 76.8 |
| 1997 | 76.6 | – | 76.9 |
| 1998 | 76.87 | – | 77.1 |
| 1999 | 77.06 | – | 77.3 |
| 2000 | 77.32 | 78.17 | 77.8 |
| 2001 | 77.61 | 78.07 | 78.1 |
| 2002 | 77.94 | 78.86 | 78.3 |
| 2003 | 78.21 | 78.71 | 78.5 |
| 2004 | 78.51 | 78.68 | 78.6 |
| 2005 | 78.88 | 79.72 | 78.8 |
| 2006 | 79.05 | 79.36 | 79 |
| 2007 | 79.1 | 80.23 | 79.1 |
| 2008 | 79.18 | 80.29 | 79.3 |
| 2009 | 79.37 | 80.61 | 79.4 |
| 2010 | 79.35 | 79.51 | 79.1 |
| 2011 | 79.62 | 80.26 | 79.1 |
| 2012 | 79.92 | 80.42 | 79.4 |
| 2013 | 80.19 | 80.6 | 79.6 |
| 2014 | 80.23 | 80.48 | 79.7 |
| 2015 | 80.41 | 80.57 | 79.9 |
| 2016 | 79.99 | 80.11 | 80 |
| 2017 | 79.99 | 80.2 | 80.2 |
| 2018 | 80.09 | 80.29 | 80.3 |
| 2019 | 80.3 | 80.3 | 80.5 |
| 2020 | 79.73 | 79.99 | 80.6 |
| 2021 | 78.05 | 78.63 | 80.8 |
| 2022 | 79.32 | – | 80.9 |
| 2023 | 80.8 | – | 81 |
| 2024 | – | – | 80.9 |
| 2025 | – | – | 81.1 |
All countriesAll of Costa Rica's figuresCompare
Costa Rica among 237 countries
48 have a higher figure and 188 a lower one. Definitions differ between countries, and their years run from 2023 to 2025.
What this number counts
- Counts
- Life expectancy at birth, both sexes: the years a newborn would live if the death rates by age of that year stayed the same for life (a period life table)
- Where
- Costa Rica
- When
- Latest year each source has: UN WPP 2023, WHO 2021, OECD 2025, World Bank 2024 (each source's latest year)
Where the number comes from (4 sources)
| Source | Figure and year | Definition | Quality | Counts for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
UN World Population Prospects 2024United Nations, Population Division · Model-based estimateRetrieved 2026-11-02 | 80.82023 | Column LEx: life expectancy at birth, both sexes, for the calendar year, from the UN's modelled period life tables (methodology report, PDF page 69).Estimates run to 2023; later years in the file are projections and are left out. Shown, not counted: its latest year, 2023, is more than one year older than this row's newest line (2025), so the two describe different periods. Raw file: WPP2024_Demographic_Indicators_Medium.csv.gz (last modified 13 December 2024). | 5 of 5 checks
| Not counted |
WHO Global Health Estimates, life expectancy at birth (WHOSIS_000001)World Health Organization (WHO) · Model-based estimateRetrieved 2026-11-02 | 78.632021 | Life expectancy at birth, both sexes, from WHO's annual period life tables.WHO's downloadable file ends in 2021, so this line shows a pandemic year. WHO's lower and upper bounds for 2021: 78.55 to 78.8. Shown, not counted: its latest year, 2021, is more than one year older than this row's newest line (2025), so the two describe different periods. Raw file: 90E2E48_ALL_LATEST.csv (https://srhdpeuwpubsa.blob.core.windows.net/whdh/DATADOT/INDICATOR/90E2E48_ALL_LATEST.csv, last modified 15 July 2025). | 5 of 5 checks
| Not counted |
OECD Health Statistics, life expectancy (DF_LE)Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) · Death and health registersRetrieved 2026-11-02 · Data (API) | 81.12025 | Life expectancy at age 0, total population, as OECD collects it from the source named in the notes.Original source: National Institute of Statistics and Census of Costa Rica (INEC). From 2000, INEC life tables. Up to 1999 OECD takes the figures from the World Bank. (OECD Health Statistics 2026, Definitions, Sources and Methods: Life expectancy, PDF page 3, as read on 2 November 2026 (the copy is kept with the raw files; scripted requests to the link got HTTP 200 and, in a later check, HTTP 403).) Raw file: life_expectancy_total_birth.csv. | 4 of 5 checks
| 100% |
World Bank, World Development Indicators (SP.DYN.LE00.IN)World Bank · Model-based estimateRetrieved 2026-11-02 | 812024 | Life expectancy at birth, total.World Bank collects no deaths of its own; it names UN World Population Prospects, national statistical offices and Eurostat as its sources. World Bank's 2024 value equals the UN's 2024 medium projection in the WPP file. Raw file: SP.DYN.LE00.IN_2015-2026.json. No series is stored because the World Bank series blends several sources. | 3 of 5 checks
| Not counted |
- OECD100%
Shown but not counted: UN WPP (its latest year, 2023, is more than one year older than this row's newest line (2025), so the two describe different periods); WHO (its latest year, 2021, is more than one year older than this row's newest line (2025), so the two describe different periods); World Bank (republishes UN WPP).
How the trust score was worked out
- Quality32 / 40
How well the sources are made
- Agreement15 / 30
Unknown with one source, so set to half
- Independence6 / 20
How many separate ways the number was measured
- Freshness10 / 10
How recent the newest data is
Who reports it, and since when
- Single source: nothing to check it against
- WHO: no figure here after 2021, while others reach 2025
- OECD, 2000: OECD marks a break in 2000: the source changes from the World Bank to INEC. source
figure no figure here, inside its range no later figure recorded change
Why the numbers differ
- Every source here is a period life table: it applies one year's death rates by age to a newborn for a whole life. It is a summary of that year's mortality, not a forecast of how long a baby born today will live, so a bad year pulls it down at once.
- Sources stop in different years, so a row counts only lines within one year of its newest source. A national population projection never counts and never sets that year, as with OECD's 2025 figures for Colombia, Mexico and Peru. WHO's downloadable file ends in 2021, a pandemic year, so WHO lines are shown with their series but not counted. The UN's estimates end in 2023, so they are not counted where OECD reports 2025: Chile, Costa Rica. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Where deaths are not fully registered, the figure is modelled from surveys, censuses and child-mortality estimates. In 2021 the median gap between the UN and WHO was 0.39 years in countries WHO lists under vital registration and 1.18 years in those it lists under model life tables. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Where deaths are well registered the sources sit close together: in 28 of 36 countries with a Eurostat figure for 2023 the UN figure is within half a year of it. Eurostat recalculates from reported deaths, and the UN fits a model to the same registers. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- According to OECD's sources document, as read on 2 November 2026 (the copy is kept with the raw files; scripted requests to the link got HTTP 200 and, in a later check, HTTP 403), methods differ in the detail. Australia, New Zealand and Türkiye use three-year periods, and OECD averages men and women for Japan and the United Kingdom. Eurostat and Statistics Norway treat ages above 90 differently, and Mexico, Colombia and Peru report figures from population projections. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- These lines are not fully independent. WHO uses the UN's population estimates and registered deaths the UN also uses. OECD's sources document, as read on 2 November 2026 (the copy is kept with the raw files; scripted requests to the link got HTTP 200 and, in a later check, HTTP 403), names Eurostat for 28 countries and the World Bank for 8, whose figures match the UN series, and those lines are not counted. For the United Kingdom and Türkiye, Eurostat and OECD rest on the same national registers, so only the newer of the two counts. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
Common mistakes
- Life expectancy at birth is not the age most people reach. Deaths in childhood pull the average down, so a low figure does not mean adults there usually die at that age.
- A World Bank or OECD figure is often not a second source. Check whose data it repeats before treating two matching numbers as agreement.
- A UN figure for a recent year in a country with thin registration is an estimate from a model, even when it is printed to several decimals. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
Download, cite and report an error
From the table How long do people live in each country? Updated 2026-11-02.
Download every value in this table (CSV)
Cite as: RealStats, “Life expectancy at birth in Costa Rica”, updated 2026-11-02, with the original sources listed on the page.