Costa Rica: Health System Outcomes - Health Systems Facts

Life Expectancy at Birth (2016)
– Male: 77.0; Female: 82.2; Both Genders: 79.6
Maternal Mortality Ratio (per 100,000 live births) (2015): 25
Neonatal Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births) (2017): 6
Probability of Dying from any of Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, Diabetes, Chronic Respiratory Diseases Between Age 30 and Exact Age 70 (%) (2017):
– Male: 13.7%; Female: 9.4%; Both Genders: 11.5%

Source: World health statistics 2019: monitoring health for the SDGs, sustainable development goals. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2019. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/324835/9789241565707-eng.pdf
https://www.who.int/gho/publications/world_health_statistics/2019/en/

Neonatal Mortality Rate (Deaths Per 1,000 Live Births) (2018): 6
Infant Mortality Rate (Deaths Per 1,000 Live Births) (2018): 8
Under-5 Mortality Rate (Deaths Per 1,000 Live Births) (2018):
Male: 10; Female: 8

Note: “Under-5 mortality rate – Probability of dying between birth and exactly 5 years of age, expressed per 1,000 live births.
“Infant mortality rate – Probability of dying between birth and exactly 1 year of age, expressed per 1,000 live births.
“Neonatal mortality rate – Probability of dying during the first 28 days of life, expressed per 1,000 live births.”

Source: UNICEF (2019). The State of the World’s Children 2019. Children, Food and Nutrition: Growing well in a changing world. UNICEF, New York.
https://www.unicef.org/reports/state-of-worlds-children-2019
https://www.unicef.org/media/60806/file/SOWC-2019.pdf

“Life expectancy at birth in Costa Rica increased from 66.9 years in 1970 to 79.9 years in 2015, meaning that the country had nearly caught up with the average life expectancy of 80.6 years across OECD countries (see Figure 1.1; OECD, 2016). Infant mortality rates have decreased from 14.3 deaths per 1 000 live births in 1995 to 8.5 deaths per 1 000 live births in 2015. Despite this decrease, the infant mortality rate in Costa Rica is still above the OECD average of 0.4 deaths per 1 000 live births. The same is true for maternal mortality rates in Costa Rica, which have decreased to 29 women per 100 000 live births in 2014 (INEC, 2015), although still higher than the OECD average of 7 per 100 000 live births. Nevertheless, Costa Rica presents one of the best life expectancy [second highest life expectancy in the Western Hemisphere, after Canada (Knaul et al., 2012)], infant mortality and maternal mortality rates in the LAC region.”

Source: OECD (2017), OECD Reviews of Health Systems: Costa Rica 2017, OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264281653-en
https://www.oecd.org/countries/costarica/oecd-reviews-of-health-systems-costa-rica-2017-9789264281653-en.htm

“Overall, Costa Rican’s rate their health above the average score in OECD countries: 6.4 (out of a normalised maximum score of 10) compared to 6.1 OECD average, on the OECD’s well-being indicators (Figure 1.2).

“These positive developments in Costa Rica are largely due to improvements in sanitation and access to primary health care – and ultimately this has led to decreasing mortality rates. The crude mortality rate in Costa Rica decreased from 10.1 per 1 000 inhabitants in 1950 (Sáenz et al., 2011) to 4.4 in 2013 (WHO, 2016a).

“Fertility rates have fallen rapidly in Costa Rica, decreasing from 3.2 births per woman in 1990 to below 2 births per woman, as in many OECD countries. Falling fertility rates, along with increasing life expectancy means that Costa Rica is experiencing a demographic transition similar to that of OECD economies; a narrowing younger base and an expanding number of older adults in the population pyramid (Figure 1.3). In 2010, the population older than 65 years of age represented around 5% of the total population in Costa Rica and in 2050 this figure is expected to increase to 21%. This development is having an important impact on the health of the population in Costa Rica and it is putting pressure on the health care system.”

Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems in the US and several other nations.

Page last updated Oct. 20, 2020 by Doug McVay, Editor.