CR
Costa Rica
Republic of Costa Rica
Costa Rica sits in Central America and uses CRC - Costa Rican colón (₡). This profile combines identifiers, formats, map links, memberships, and the largest city records in one structured reference.
Capital
San José
Population
5.2M
Area
51.1K km2
Population
5.2M
5,160,700 people
Area
51.1K km2
51,100 square kilometers
Density
101/km2
Population divided by land area
Capital
San José
9.93, -84.09
Detailed Country Guide
Overview and identity
Costa Rica, officially listed here as Republic of Costa Rica, is structured as a practical country reference guide for users searching country facts, maps, flags, codes, and daily-use data. The page should make Costa Rica, CR, CRI, the flag, the official name, and the country slug easy to confirm because users often land on country pages while checking identifiers for forms, travel, education, or data products. Costa Rica is grouped under Americas, more specifically Central America, with North America shown as the continent context.
Geography and population scale
The country dataset records a population of 5,160,700 people and a land area of 51,100 square kilometers, which gives an approximate density of 101 people per square kilometer. The main coordinate reference is 10, -84, while the capital coordinate reference is 9.93, -84.09. Costa Rica shares listed land borders with NIC, PAN, and the landlocked value is recorded as no. These details help the page answer common searches around location, area, borders, map position, and population comparison.
Capital and urban network
The capital information is recorded as San José (primary). The largest city entries shown for this country are San José, San Marcos, San Ramón, Puntarenas and Santa Cruz. Including cities alongside country-level facts helps the guide answer searches such as largest cities in Costa Rica, capital of Costa Rica, and major urban areas in Costa Rica. This is useful because many users compare the official capital with the largest business, transport, or population centers.
Government, classification, and memberships
The government type is listed as Unitary presidential republic. The classification fields mark sovereignty as yes, United Nations membership as yes, observer status as no, and disputed status as no. International memberships shown for this page include OECD and United Nations. These fields support search intent around political status, country classification, and international organization membership.
Administrative formats and daily-use data
Costa Rica uses calling code +506, postal format ####, and time zone data listed as UTC-06:00. The number format uses . as the thousands separator and , as the decimal separator. The week starts on monday; the academic year starts around Feb 1; the government fiscal year starts around Jan 1; and the personal fiscal year starts around Jan 1.
Currency, language, transport, and references
Currency data lists CRC - Costa Rican colón (₡), while language records include Spanish. Vehicle data records the driving side as right and vehicle sign codes as CR. Reference links should keep official, Wikipedia, Google Maps, and OpenStreetMap sources together when available so users can move from the structured country guide to map or source pages quickly. The latest Gini entry in the dataset is 45.5 for 2025.
How to use this profile
This Costa Rica profile is designed to be scanned in layers: first the name, official name, flag, capital, population, area, and density; then identity, geography, cities, governance, memberships, formats, connectivity, currency, languages, transport, and references. That structure supports both human readers and product workflows where users need to verify a phone code, compare cities, inspect fiscal dates, check postal formats, review memberships, or open a map reference without searching across multiple pages.
Country Snapshot
ISO codes
CR / CRI
Top-level domains
.cr
Continents
North America
Border countries
NIC, PAN
Driving side
right
Vehicle signs
CR
Flag And Identity
The flag entry for Costa Rica is represented by the CR country flag asset.
Largest Cities
#1
San José
San José
335,007
primary
#2
San Marcos
Alajuela
198,742
City
#3
San Ramón
Alajuela
93,264
City
#4
Puntarenas
Puntarenas
87,500
admin
#5
Santa Cruz
Guanacaste
72,366
City
Governance
Government type
Unitary presidential republic
Sovereign
Yes
UN member
Yes
Landlocked
No
Formats
Week starts
monday
Academic year
Feb 1
Government fiscal year
Jan 1
Number separators
. thousands, , decimal
Connectivity
Calling codes
+506
Postal format
####
Timezones
UTC-06:00
Languages
Spanish
International Memberships
Economy And References
Latest Gini entry
45.5
2025