Regional data
Regional data — Costa Rica
Every province, canton and district of Costa Rica: population and housing from the INEC 2022 estimate, crimes reported to the OIJ over the last 12 closed months, the official ONT land value, and REAL NOW market prices.
Population
5,044,197
INEC estimate, 2022
Crimes per 1,000 residents
7.2
36,302 reports in 12 months -8.0%
Homicides
775
last 12 months · 15.4 per 100,000
Official land value
US$177/m²
median of urban residential zones
Unoccupied dwellings
11.7%
214,654 of 1,836,035
Median sale price per m²
US$1,963
apartments and houses, national
Provinces
Provinces: complete list
Click a column to sort, type to search, open a row for the full profile.
| Province | Population2022 | Densityper km² | Unoccupieddwellings, share | Crimesper 1,000, 12 m | Crime trendvs prior 12 m | Homicides12 m | Land valueONT, US$/m² | SaleUS$/m², homes | ApartmentsUS$/m² | HousesUS$/m² | RentUS$/month | Yieldgross |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San José | 1,601,167 | 322 | 8.3% | 8.9 | -4.3% | 226 | US$254 | US$1,701 | US$2,170 | US$1,538 | US$2,100 | 7.72% |
| Alajuela | 1,035,464 | 106 | 11.1% | 5.7 | -4.8% | 79 | US$111 | US$1,473 | US$1,497 | US$1,460 | US$1,700 | 6.47% |
| Cartago | 545,092 | 176 | 8.5% | 4.2 | -16.2% | 70 | US$166 | US$1,147 | US$1,300 | US$1,140 | US$2,800 | 6.15% |
| Puntarenas | 500,166 | 44 | 19.3% | 8.2 | -8.8% | 124 | US$55 | US$2,694 | US$2,836 | US$2,648 | US$1,700 | — |
| Heredia | 479,117 | 180 | 8.4% | 5.6 | -18.6% | 22 | US$276 | US$1,635 | US$1,762 | US$1,604 | US$1,800 | 6.09% |
| Limón | 470,383 | 51 | 14.5% | 7.4 | -7.3% | 185 | US$33 | US$1,717 | US$1,460 | US$1,972 | — | — |
| Guanacaste | 412,808 | 40 | 19.4% | 8.7 | -12.2% | 69 | US$111 | US$3,036 | US$2,975 | US$3,036 | US$3,430 | 5.77% |
solid: 30 or more listings
preliminary: 15 to 29
— not enough data, or not published by the source
Methodology
Sources and methodology
What each column is made of, so you can judge it before quoting it.
Official statistics
- Population, dwellings, density and growth: INEC Costa Rica, 2022 estimate by district. Unoccupied share = unoccupied dwellings divided by all dwellings.
- Crimes: reports to the OIJ of assault, theft, break-ins, vehicle theft, theft from vehicles and homicide, summed over the last 12 closed months (2025-10 to 2026-09). The rate per 1,000 residents uses the 2022 population; the trend compares with the previous 12 months and is shown only when that window has at least 10 cases.
- Monteverde and Puerto Jiménez became cantons after the 2022 estimate: their population comes from the former district and is taken out of Puntarenas and Golfito, whose growth rates are therefore not shown.
- Land value: ONT (Ministerio de Hacienda) homogeneous-zone values for urban residential zones. It is a fiscal reference value, not an appraisal and not the current value of any property. Median across zones, not weighted by area. Converted at 452.13 colones per US dollar (2026-09).
- Districts created after the 2022 estimate have crimes but no population, so no rate.
REAL NOW market metrics
- Sale: median asking price per m² of apartments and houses for sale seen in the last 30 days in the aggregated public offer, with the same outlier bounds as Analytics. List prices, not closed sales.
- Confidence: solid = 30 or more listings, preliminary = 15 to 29; below 15 nothing is published.
- Rent and gross yield: REAL NOW rent benchmarks, median monthly rent of homes; gross yield = rent × 12 ÷ sale price of the same cell, published only between 3 and 12 percent. Available by province or department and by municipality or canton.
- Listings are placed in regions using official boundary names; a label that cannot be placed without ambiguity counts only at the levels it does resolve.
Sources: INEC Costa Rica (2022 estimate) · OIJ – Poder Judicial de Costa Rica (CC BY 4.0) · ONT – Ministerio de Hacienda (fiscal reference value, not an appraisal) · REAL NOW aggregated public offer.
· Updated 2026-10-25