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Costa Rica — Unemployment
Unemployment Rate for Costa Rica, 1991–2025.
Latest value · 2025
6.84%
Unemployment Rate · % of total labor force · +27.4% since 1991
Unemployment for Costa Rica was 6.84% in 2025, according to the latest World Bank data. The series covers 35 years, from 1991 to 2025. The highest recorded value was 16.43% in 2020. The lowest was 3.93% in 1992 (about 1.7× the low point). Across that span the compound annual growth rate works out to 0.72% per year.
Costa Rica ranks 64 of 187 economies on this measure (1 = highest), putting it in the top 34%. The median for Latin America & Caribbean is 5.99%, so Costa Rica sits above it. It peaked in 2020 and has fallen 58% since. Over the last decade (2015–2025) the figure moved down 19%.
Key figures
Latest (2025)
6.84%
First (1991)
5.37%
Change
+27.4%
Highest
16.43%
in 2020
Lowest
3.93%
in 1992
Average
7.36%
Annual growth (CAGR)
0.72%
Years of data
35
Recent years
| Year | % of total labor force |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 6.84% |
| 2024 | 6.94% |
| 2023 | 8.32% |
| 2022 | 11.33% |
| 2021 | 15.14% |
| 2020 | 16.43% |
| 2019 | 10.81% |
| 2018 | 9.01% |
| 2017 | 7.73% |
| 2016 | 8.09% |
| 2015 | 8.41% |
| 2014 | 8.5% |
Reading this correctly. Share of the labor force without work but available for and seeking employment. National definitions differ, so cross-country comparison needs care. Figures are in % of total labor force. Comparing this series with a different measure of the same concept (for example a nominal figure against a purchasing-power-parity figure) will give misleading results.
Related data
Source. World Bank Open Data, indicator
SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS — Unemployment Rate. Data licensed under CC BY 4.0. Values are reproduced as published; this page computes the summary statistics (change, CAGR, extremes) from the underlying annual series. View the original dataset on data.worldbank.org.