Costa Rica Ranks 20th of 192 Countries for Relocation, Fifth for Retirees

COSTA RICA · BUSINESS

Rumavi’s Global Relocation Index 2026 places Costa Rica 20th out of 192 countries and territories. The detail behind that headline number matters for anyone planning a move.

The Costa Rica relocation ranking sits at 20th out of 192 countries and territories in the Rumavi Global Relocation Index 2026. The Singapore-based firm gave the country 68.7 points out of 100 when it published the index on 1 July 2026.

What the Costa Rica relocation ranking measures

Rumavi is a Singapore-based advisory firm that publishes the Global Relocation Index each year. The 2026 edition scores 192 countries and territories on 24 separate metrics.

Those 24 metrics sit in four groups, which Rumavi calls pillars. They are financial and tax, livability and health, safety and stability, and settling and opportunity.

Rumavi then re-weights the same data six ways for different kinds of movers. The six views cover general movers, retirees, digital nomads, families, entrepreneurs and tax-focused relocators.

Every metric is scaled from 0 to 100 before the pillars are combined into one score. The firm published the 2026 edition on Wednesday 1 July 2026.

Where Costa Rica scores well and where it lags

Livability and health is Costa Rica’s strongest pillar, at 74.5 out of 100. That group covers healthcare quality and cost, housing, air quality, climate comfort, green space and digital infrastructure.

Financial and tax follows at 72.5, a pillar built from cost of living, income tax, foreign-income treatment, currency and banking. Safety and stability comes in lower, at 62.4 points.

Settling and opportunity is the weakest pillar, at 60.0 points. It measures visas, the path to permanent status, education, business openings and English access.

The pattern is consistent across the four pillars. Costa Rica rewards people who want to live there more than people who want to build a career there.

How Costa Rica compares across the Americas

Costa Rica is the highest-placed country in continental Latin America in this index. Panama follows closely at 23rd with 68.3 points.

Uruguay ranks 35th on 67.4 and Canada 41st on 66.8. Chile sits 51st, Colombia 78th, Brazil 80th and Argentina 87th.

Mexico is much further back, at 112th with 59.8 points. The gap between Costa Rica and Panama is only 0.4 points overall.

Estonia leads the global table on 72.8, ahead of Singapore, Malaysia, Portugal and Taiwan. Latvia has the same 68.7 score as Costa Rica but is placed 19th.

Why the ranking matters for expats and investors

For people already living in Latin America, the Costa Rica relocation ranking is a structured way to compare countries. It sets tax treatment, healthcare and safety beside everyday livability, using the same measures for every country.

The retiree result is the strongest signal here. Costa Rica placed fifth worldwide for retirees on 73.5 points, behind Malaysia, Panama, Portugal and Thailand in that order.

The picture changes with the reader’s plans. Costa Rica ranks 16th for digital nomads, 25th for tax-friendliness, 38th for families and 60th for entrepreneurs.

That spread is the practical takeaway. A retiree and a company founder looking at the same country get very different answers.

What the index does not tell you

Rumavi labels its data in tiers: named institutional sources, modelled estimates and its own documented assessments. For Costa Rica, 14 of the 24 metrics rest on institutional data.

The firm says about 127 countries have strong institutional coverage, while 65 are flagged as directional only. It also notes that 31 countries lack conflict-risk data from the Global Peace Index.

Rumavi does not publish the underlying indicator scores behind each pillar for every country. It is a private advisory firm, not a government body or a multilateral institution.

No Costa Rican authority has commented on the result. The index is a tool for comparison, not a measure of any one person’s experience.

Why the ranking surfaced in September

The index itself is not new. Rumavi released the 2026 edition on 1 July, and Costa Rican outlets picked it up on Tuesday 22 September 2026.

Tico Times led on the retiree result, while Q Costa Rica led on the top-20 placing. Both drew their figures from the same Rumavi tables.

Nothing in the index has changed since July. The scores and ranks quoted here match Rumavi’s published tables as of Wednesday 23 September 2026.

Rumavi describes the index as independent and free of advertising. It also sells advisory work, so readers should treat the ranking as one firm’s view.

The bottom line for foreign residents

Costa Rica’s 20th place is a strong result in a global table led by Estonia and Singapore. It rests on health and lifestyle rather than on ease of settling.

Anyone weighing Costa Rica against Panama should look past the 0.4-point gap. The two countries score very differently once the retiree, family and business weightings are applied.

The next edition is due at the start of the third quarter of 2027. Until then, the 2026 figures give foreign residents a clear, if partial, benchmark for the region.

More: Costa Rica news in English, every day from The Rio Times.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who publishes the Global Relocation Index?

Rumavi, a Singapore-based advisory firm. It published the 2026 edition on 1 July 2026, covering 192 countries and territories.

Where did Costa Rica rank in 2026?

Twentieth overall, with 68.7 points out of 100. It also placed fifth in the index’s separate ranking for retirees.

What is Costa Rica’s weakest area?

Settling and opportunity, at 60.0 points. That pillar covers visas, permanent residency, education, business openings and English access.

Sources: Rumavi Global Relocation Index 2026, published 1 July 2026, including its methodology, general and retiree tables and Costa Rica country page; Tico Times; Q Costa Rica.