Latin America
Costa Rica ranks 36th overall out of 59 countries in the Relocate Index, with a composite score of 59.0 out of 100. It scores highest on climate (90) and religious freedom (87), and lowest on purchasing power (38). Data is unavailable for 1 of the 10 dimensions.
How far money stretches in each country — based on price levels, purchasing power parity (PPP), and out-of-pocket healthcare costs. Uses country-level data, not your personal salary.
When you move abroad, your salary or savings buy different amounts depending on local prices. A country can have high wages but high costs, or moderate wages with remarkable purchasing power. This dimension captures what your money actually buys day-to-day, not just what you earn.
purchasing_power = oecd_ppp_normalised × 0.55 + cost_affordability × 0.30 + (100 − oop_burden) × 0.15
Limitation: Country-level only — no city-level granularity until Numbeo added in V2.
How well institutions work and how safe the streets actually feel — combining governance quality with street-level crime perception.
Rule of law captures two things: institutional quality (do courts work, is corruption controlled?) and street-level reality (do people feel safe walking around?). Some countries have great institutions but rough streets; others have modest governance but feel very safe day-to-day. It does not measure everyday etiquette — queuing, littering, noise norms — because no reliable cross-country data for those behaviours exists.
Reflects waste infrastructure and enforcement capacity, which correlates strongly with national wealth — not a pure measure of citizen behaviour.
What survey respondents expect would happen to a lost wallet found by a stranger — perceived trust, not a measured return rate.
civic_culture = governance × 0.60 + street_safety × 0.40. governance = wgi_rule_of_law × 0.55 + wgi_corruption_control × 0.45. street_safety = 100 − numbeo_crime_index.
Limitation: Governance data is institutional (WGI). Street safety is crowdsourced perception (Numbeo). Neither captures behavioural civicness (queuing, littering, social norms) directly.
Overall peace and security based on conflict risk, political instability, and societal safety.
Safety shapes everything from where you walk at night to whether you feel comfortable letting your children explore independently. This dimension captures country-level peace and security — conflict risk, political stability, and societal safety — not neighbourhood-level crime.
safety = gpi_normalised (inverted, min-max across 1.0–3.5)
Limitation: Single-source — measures country-level peace/conflict (GPI). Street-level crime perception is captured in Rule of Law via Numbeo.
How welcoming and sociable the culture is — combining cultural permissiveness with expat experience.
Cultural warmth determines how quickly you build a social life. Some cultures are genuinely open to newcomers; others are polite but reserved. This dimension blends academic measures of cultural openness with real expat experiences of settling in.
All key sources (Hofstede IVR) are required to produce a comparable score. Available indicators are shown above for reference.
warmth = IVR × 0.40 + internations_score × 0.60. Both sources required — no fallback.
Limitation: InterNations has ~260 respondents per country. Hofstede IVR is static (2010). Countries missing either source show no warmth score. Mismatch flag when abs(IVR − InterNations) > 30.
Academic quality plus student wellbeing — belonging, bullying rates, and school safety.
For families, the school environment is often the deciding factor. This goes beyond test scores to measure whether students feel they belong, whether bullying is common, and whether schools are safe spaces. Academic quality matters, but a child's daily experience matters more.
school_culture = pisa_academic × 0.25 + pisa_belonging × 0.30 + pisa_bullying_inv × 0.30 + pisa_safety × 0.15
Limitation: PISA 2022 is the latest scored edition. PISA 2025 results expected late 2026 or early 2027.
Three-pillar health system score: coverage breadth (UHC), care quality and outcomes (HAQ), and workforce capacity (physicians, beds, nurses). The badge shows what it means for your budget.
The score combines what healthcare services exist (UHC), how good outcomes are (HAQ — amenable mortality across 32 causes), and whether the system has enough doctors, beds, and nurses. The badge tells you what that means financially: public coverage, mandatory insurance, employer-dependent, or budget for private.
Working legally means you're covered. Healthcare is funded through payroll or taxes — no separate budget needed.
healthcare = UHC × 0.35 + HAQ × 0.35 + capacity × 0.30. capacity = physicians_norm × 0.40 + beds_norm × 0.35 + nurses_norm × 0.25.
Limitation: HAQ is from GBD 2019 — next update pending. Capacity data is OECD 2022 for member countries, WHO GHO for others.
Quality of physical and digital infrastructure — transport, energy, communications, technology.
Reliable transport, stable electricity, fast internet, and modern communications infrastructure affect daily life in ways you stop noticing — until they break. This dimension captures the physical and digital backbone that makes a country function smoothly.
infrastructure = imd_infra_score (direct pass-through, already 0–100)
Limitation: IMD uses 300+ indicators per country. Well-validated but only covers ~60 countries.
Temperature, sunshine, and rainfall scored against your preferred weather type. Select your preference during onboarding or adjust in the ranking view.
Climate is personal — there is no objectively best weather. Your preference for warmth, seasons, rainfall, and sunshine drives this score. Unlike other dimensions, climate varies dramatically within large countries; for large countries you can select a specific city — the default is the largest city by population.
Climate varies significantly across Costa Rica. Use the city selector at the top of the page to update this score.
climate = 100 − (|avg_temp − ref| × penalty) − rain_penalty − sunshine_penalty. Reference temp and thresholds vary by weather type.
Limitation: For 8 large countries, city-level data is available. For all others, a single representative city is used. Heuristic scoring, not a climate model.
Government restrictions and social hostility toward religious practice.
For people of faith, the ability to practise openly without government restrictions or social hostility is fundamental. This dimension measures both state-level restrictions (laws, regulations) and social-level hostility (harassment, discrimination by neighbours or communities).
religious_freedom = (100 − pew_govt_normalised) × 0.50 + (100 − pew_social_normalised) × 0.50
Limitation: Expert-assessed, not survey-based. Captures state/social level, not neighbourhood level.
Population-level English ability. English-native countries are scored at 10.
For non-native English speakers relocating abroad, the population's English ability determines how easily you can navigate daily life, work, and social connections without learning the local language. A high score means English gets you far; a low score means significant language investment.
english_proficiency = ef_epi_normalised (min-max across 300–700). Native countries hardcoded to 100.
Limitation: EF EPI tests self-selected online test-takers, which skews slightly upward.
Costa Rica ranks 49th out of 59 countries for purchasing power, scoring 38 out of 100. OECD purchasing power parity: 28908.8 (moderate). Price level ratio vs US: 0.62 (affordable). Out-of-pocket health spending: 20.5% of total health expenditure (moderate burden).
Sources: OECD PPP (AIC) (2023), Price Level Ratio (2023), WHO Out-of-Pocket % (2023)
Costa Rica ranks 42nd out of 60 countries for rule of law, scoring 57 out of 100. WGI Rule of Law percentile: 68 (strong). WGI Corruption Control: 61.6 (strong control). Numbeo Crime Index: 54.2 (high crime).
Sources: WGI Rule of Law (2023), WGI Corruption Control (2023), Numbeo Crime Index (2026)
Costa Rica ranks 43rd out of 60 countries for safety, scoring 66 out of 100. Global Peace Index: 1.843 (peaceful).
Sources: GPI Score (2023)
Costa Rica ranks 35th out of 57 countries for school culture, scoring 46 out of 100. PISA 2022 academic scores: reading 434 (oecd average), maths 395 (below oecd avg). Student belonging index: 0.30 (high belonging). Bullying exposure index: 0.22 (high exposure).
Sources: PISA Reading (2022), PISA Maths (2022), PISA Science (2022), PISA Belonging Index (2022), PISA Bullying Index (2022), PISA Safety Index (2022)
Costa Rica ranks 43rd out of 59 countries for healthcare, scoring 58 out of 100. WHO UHC coverage: 81 (excellent). HAQ Index: 64.7 (moderate). Physicians: 2.9 per 1,000 (moderate). Hospital beds: 1 per 1,000 (limited). Working legally means you're covered. Healthcare is funded through payroll or taxes — no separate budget needed.
Sources: WHO UHC Coverage (2023), HAQ Index (GBD 2019) (2019), Physicians per 1,000 (2022), Hospital beds per 1,000 (2022), Nurses per 1,000 (2022)
Costa Rica ranks 45th out of 59 countries for infrastructure, scoring 43 out of 100. IMD Infrastructure Score: 42.5 (moderate).
Sources: IMD Infrastructure Score (2023)
Costa Rica has average annual temperature 20.0 °C, 1980 sunshine hours per year, 180 rain days per year. Summers average 20.5 °C; winters average 19.5 °C.
Sources: Open-Meteo ERA5 (2023)
Costa Rica ranks 11th out of 60 countries for religious freedom, scoring 87 out of 100. Government restrictions on religion: 2.6 out of 10 (moderate). Social hostilities toward religion: 0.1 out of 10 (low hostility).
Sources: Pew Govt Restrictions (2023), Pew Social Hostilities (2023)
Costa Rica ranks 39th out of 55 countries for English proficiency, scoring 46 out of 100. EF English Proficiency Index: 516 (high).
Sources: EF EPI Score (2023)
Costa Rica ranks 36th out of 59 countries in the Relocate Index with a composite score of 59.0 out of 100. It scores highest on climate (90) and lowest on purchasing power (38). The index covers 10 dimensions scored on data from OECD, World Bank, WHO, and other institutional sources.
Costa Rica scores 66 out of 100 for safety in the Relocate Index, ranking 43rd out of 60 countries. Its Global Peace Index score is 1.843, rated "peaceful". Source: Institute for Economics and Peace, Global Peace Index.
Costa Rica scores 58 out of 100 for healthcare, ranking 43rd out of 59 countries. WHO Universal Health Coverage index: 81 (excellent). Working legally means you're covered. Healthcare is funded through payroll or taxes — no separate budget needed. Sources: WHO, IHME Global Burden of Disease, OECD Health Statistics.
Costa Rica scores 38 out of 100 for purchasing power, ranking 49th out of 59 countries. Its price level ratio relative to the US is 0.62 (affordable). Source: OECD, World Bank.
Warmth data is not available for Costa Rica. This dimension requires both Hofstede IVR and InterNations Ease of Settling In data, and at least one source is missing for this country.
Costa Rica has an average annual temperature of 20.0 °C, summers averaging 20.5 °C and winters 19.5 °C, 1980 sunshine hours per year, 180 rain days per year. Climate data from Open-Meteo ERA5 reanalysis.
Costa Rica scores 46 out of 100 for school culture, ranking 35th out of 57 countries. PISA 2022 scores: reading 434, maths 395. Student belonging index: 0.30 (high belonging). Source: OECD PISA 2022.
Costa Rica scores 46 out of 100 for English proficiency, ranking 39th out of 55 countries. EF English Proficiency Index score: 516, rated "high". Source: EF Education First, EF EPI.
Relocate Index