Costa Rica ranks 20th out of 192 countries and territories in the 2026 Global Relocation Index, and fifth in the world for retirees, according to the Singapore-based advisory firm Rumavi. The index, first published in July, scores countries on 24 metrics grouped into four pillars: financial and tax conditions, livability and health, safety and stability, and settling and opportunity. Each metric is scaled from 0 to 100, and the same data is re-weighted to produce separate rankings for retirees, digital nomads, families and entrepreneurs.
Costa Rica scored 68.7 overall, ahead of Panama (23rd, 68.3), Uruguay (35th, 67.4), Canada (41st, 66.8) and Mexico (59.8). It is the highest-ranked country in continental Latin America. Estonia topped the general ranking at 72.8, followed by Singapore, Malaysia, Portugal and Taiwan.
The retiree ranking is where Costa Rica performs best. It placed fifth with a score of 73.5, behind Malaysia, Panama, Portugal and Thailand. That ranking gives the heaviest weight to healthcare quality and the tax treatment of foreign income, and places no weight on startup ecosystems or education. The index also factors in Costa Rica’s dedicated residency category for pensioners.
Costa Rica’s strength was livability and health, at 74.5. Within it, Costa Rica scored 70 for healthcare quality, 75 for healthcare affordability, 78 for air quality, 76 for climate and 80 for digital infrastructure. It scored 72.5 in the financial and tax pillar. Rumavi gave the country high marks for its treatment of foreign-source income, access to visas and property rights for non-citizens.
The weaker scores came in safety and business. Street safety scored 46.1 out of 100, and the broader safety and stability pillar came in at 62.4. The entrepreneurship ecosystem scored 37 and business opportunities 51, which pushed Costa Rica down to 60th in the entrepreneur ranking. It placed 16th for digital nomads and remote workers.
The street safety score shows a concern that has dominated public debate this year. Security Minister Gerald Campos said Monday that Costa Rica had recorded 590 homicides so far in 2026, 43 fewer than in the same period last year, and attributed much of the violence to disputes between criminal groups.
Rumavi says its scores draw on international data sources, supplemented by the firm’s own estimates for certain variables. For Costa Rica, 14 of the 24 indicators rely on institutional data, with the rest based on other estimates or assessments. The firm advises clients on relocation, residency and property investment, though Costa Rica is not among the markets where it says it works directly.
Rankings of this kind shift considerably depending on how each factor is weighted, and Costa Rica’s position varies widely between the index’s categories. Rumavi updates the index annually, with the next edition expected in mid-2027.
