Sustainable Development Goals for Costa Rica

Child well-being

UNICEF’S commitment to data for children is guided by the fact that the SDGs impact every aspect of a child’s life. Our work is structured around 5 overarching areas of well-being for every child which are grounded in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This human rights-based approach pursues a vision of realizing the rights of every child, especially the most disadvantaged and responds to the call to “leave no child behind”, so that the rights of every child, everywhere, will be fulfilled.

Child-related SDG indicators

The 2030 Agenda includes 17 Global Goals addressing the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Attached to the Goals are 169 concrete targets measured by 232 specific indicators.

To chart and track how ambitious and how realistic country targets are, UNICEF created quantifiable country-level benchmarks for child-related indicators for which data are available to measure and monitor child rights on a common scale.

Provided below is a stocktaking of the country’s performance against the 45 child-related SDG indicators, grouping the results into five areas of child well-being to provide an overall assessment of how children are faring. The countries are evaluated using global and national targets. The analysis provides valuable insights into both historic progress – recognizing the results delivered by countries in the recent past – as well as how much additional effort might be required to achieve the child-related SDG targets. This approach provides a framework to assess ambition as well as the scale of action needed to realize it.

Value
Latest year
with data
Historic progress
Effort needed to meet the 2030 target
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people in grades 2 or 3 achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in reading (%)
75
2019
Weak
Very high effort
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people in grades 2 or 3 achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in mathematics (%)
67
2019
Weak
Very high effort
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people at the end of primary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in reading (%)
54
2019
Average
Very high effort
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people at the end of primary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in mathematics (%)
21
2019
Weak
Very high effort
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in reading (%)
58
2018
Weak
High effort
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in mathematics (%)
40
2018
Weak
High effort
4.1.2 Completion rate in primary education (%)
97
2020
Average
Average effort
4.1.2 Completion rate in lower secondary education (%)
81
2020
Strong
Target met
4.1.2 Completion rate in upper secondary education (%)
65
2020
Average
Target met
4.2.1 Proportion of children aged 36-59 months who are developmentally on track in health, learning and psychosocial well-being, by sex (%)
86
2018
Strong
Very high effort
4.2.2 Participation rate in organized learning (one year before the official primary entry age) (%)
99
2020
Average
Average effort
Poverty Poverty
1.1.1 Children living in households in extreme poverty (%)
3
2022
Average
High effort
1.2.1 Children living below the national poverty line (%)
30
2020
Weak
High effort
1.2.1 Proportion of children living below the national poverty line, both sexes (%), Covid projections
30
2020
No trend data available
No trend data available
1.2.2 Children living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions (%)
4
2018
No trend data available
No trend data available
1.3.1 Proportion of child population covered by social protection floors/systems (%)
39
2021
No trend data available
No trend data available
Legal frameworks that promote, enforce and monitor gender equality in employment and economic benefits
80
2022
No trend data available
No trend data available

Historic progress

  • Very weak
  • Weak
  • Average
  • Strong
  • Very strong
  • No trend data available
  • No data

Effort needed to hit relative target

  • Target met
  • Very low effort
  • Low effort
  • Average effort
  • High effort
  • Very high effort
  • Above recorded history
  • No trend data available
  • No data
  • No target

Note: This dashboard uses internationally comparable data from the global databases held on behalf of the international community by UNICEF and other United Nations agencies. While UNICEF is committed to the localization of SDG targets, global rather than national targets are used to gauge progress on the SDG indicators.  To read more about how the trajectories towards the global targets are assessed please read the methodology note.

Population overview

Understanding of a country’s population levels, trends and projections constitutes an essential ingredient in strategic planning, policy development and program implementation for addressing global challenges and emerging issues.

Total population: 5,212,173 (2023 projections)

Age (yrs)
Male
Female
0-4
5-9
10-14
15-19
20-24
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60-64
65-69
70-74
75-79
80-84
85-89
90-94
95-99
100+
159,178
152,635
179,180
171,710
188,290
180,287
188,017
180,296
197,722
189,590
208,807
201,468
216,675
209,261
214,383
208,381
191,909
189,029
165,695
166,481
149,934
154,246
146,141
151,814
130,096
136,995
99,314
108,119
72,571
81,973
50,645
58,385
29,487
37,437
12,997
20,054
3,598
7,179
559
1,466
39
136
10
7.5
5
2.5
0
2.5
5
7.5
10
Share of total population (%)

Source: United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects 2022

Related SDG resources