How Many Americans Live in Costa Rica
Costa Rica is one of the best-known destinations for American retirees and one of the harder places to count them. Its agencies hold the records; they publish almost none of them by nationality.
The American Emigration Revue counts US citizensPeople holding United States citizenship, as counted by Costa Rica's own official records. A separate population from US-born residents; the two are never added. Definitions ›, US-born residentsPeople born in the United States living in Costa Rica, whatever citizenship they hold today. A separate population from US citizens; the two are never added. Definitions ›, naturalizations and long-term permits from official government sources, with every figure cited. This page sets out what Costa Rica publishes, what it does not, and how far the published record can be trusted.
Why Costa Rica's Records, Not Washington's
The ContextThe context every page needs: who counts Americans abroad, and who doesn't.
The United States publishes no count of its own citizens abroad. Its best federal figure, 3.3 million Americans worldwide, is a statistical model built to size the overseas electorate, and the same model said 4.4 million two years earlier. The Census Bureau decided in 1976 to exclude private Americans abroad from the decennial enumeration (overseas federal employees and military are still counted). What Washington publishes instead is fragments: Social Security checks mailed to foreign addresses, tax returns claiming foreign income, quarterly lists of people who gave up their citizenship. See what each federal source actually counts ›
So this project counts from the receiving side. Every figure on this page comes from records Costa Rica itself publishes, read under the same rules applied to every country in the project. Where Costa Rica publishes, it is counted and cited. Where it does not, the gap is shown rather than filled: no estimates, no models. How openly each country reports ›
What the Research Found
The FindingsFindings from the Costa Rica research, drawn from the official record.
The Figures as Data
The EvidenceMachine-readable copy of the figures on this page, each with the year its source published it. Free to download and reuse with attribution.
| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| US citizens | 9,793 |
| US-citizen arrivals | 1,815 |
| Naturalizations of US citizens | 116 |
The Sources and Datasets section below names every publisher behind this page. The free CSV covers the years shown to readers without an account.
Obtained by Records Request
Data released by government institutions in response to formal freedom of information requests.
The expat belt is administrative fact: Escazú (180), the city of San José (131) and Santa Ana (108) lead — the capital and its western suburbs — with Pérez Zeledón and the Central Valley towns behind.
Released to AER under Constitutional Right of Access to Public Information (Articles 27 and 30 of the Constitution) — available on request, not proactively published. It does not affect the Data Visibility Index, which scores only what governments publish.
A naturalized-retiree profile: just over half are 60+, the modal group is 70–79, and men outnumber women 63/37. The roll also records year of naturalization back to 1965 — the busiest years on record are 2016 and 2023.
Released to AER under Constitutional Right of Access to Public Information (Articles 27 and 30 of the Constitution) — available on request, not proactively published. It does not affect the Data Visibility Index, which scores only what governments publish.
How Far to Trust These Figures
The Publishing RecordWhat Costa Rica publishes, how often it publishes, and the sources behind every number on this page.
The gaps: Published only partially or as one-off estimates: resident US citizens, annual arrivals, naturalizations. Not published: US-born residents, residence or work permits: those gaps set the grade; they do not make the published figures wrong. What the partial figures can support: Inflows, Citizens, Naturalizations come as a one-off figure rather than a yearly series: good for a snapshot of today, not for reading a trend.
Every figure on this page comes from one of the publishers below. Links go to the authority and, where stable, straight to the dataset.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick AnswersEvery answer is drawn from the official record, from the same sources cited across this page.
How many Americans become citizens of Costa Rica?
Does Costa Rica recognize dual citizenship with the United States?
Where do the figures for Americans in Costa Rica come from?
The full series, every year, every country
The public view shows a limited year window for each series. Researchers and journalists can request access to the complete annual record for every country in the project.