Babies on Map births by country, 0 CE – 2026

Americas · Central America

How many babies are born in Costa Rica?

50.2 thousand babies born in Costa Rica in 2026 — 0.04% of all births worldwide, and the 134th largest of any country. UN projection

Plus or minus about 6%. These years have not happened yet or have not been counted yet. They are the medium variant of the UN's projection, not a record of births that took place.

Births in Costa Rica through history

1K10K 1 CE1000150018002026
Estimated annual births in Costa Rica, 0 CE to 2026, on a logarithmic scale. The shaded band on the left marks the years where births are modelled rather than recorded. The marker sits on 2026.
Every figure refers to the area inside Costa Rica's present-day borders. Before 1800 the state did not exist in its current form — see how borders are handled.
Year Estimated births Population Per 1,000 Evidence
1 CE ~5K ~120K 40.9 Modelled estimate
1000 ~12K ~290K 40.9 Modelled estimate
1500 ~13K ~450K 28.6 Modelled estimate
1800 ~2.53K ~53K 47.7 Historical reconstruction
1900 ~14.9K ~317K 46.8 Historical reconstruction
1950 41.6K 927K 44.9 UN estimate
2000 79.7K 3.94M 20.2 UN estimate
2024 51.2K 5.13M 10.0 UN projection
2026 50.2K 5.17M 9.7 UN projection

What the numbers show

Annual births in Costa Rica are at their highest in the whole run of estimates in 1987, at about 84.2K. That is roughly 10 times the estimated ~4.99K births a year in 1 CE.

At 1.31 children per woman, fertility in Costa Rica is below the level of about 2.1 that would hold a population steady over the long run without migration.

See Costa Rica on the map

Where these numbers come from

2026 figures are the UN World Population Prospects 2024 medium variant. Earlier years come from the UN's estimates (1950 onward), Gapminder's reconstructions (1800–1949) and a model applied to HYDE population estimates (before 1800). The full chain is set out in the methodology, and every source is listed on the sources page.