Costa Rica Fertility Rate Hits 1.2 as Families Get Smaller and Older
Costa Rica is undergoing a demographic transformation that will leave a lasting mark on the country. Families are smaller, parents are starting later in life, and a growing share of households no longer include children at all. The shifts, captured in recent data from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses ( INEC ), are reshaping the structure of the Costa Rican home and raising pointed questions about the country’s social and economic future. In 2025, Costa Rica recorded a fertility rate of just 1.2 children per woman, a figure that stands in stark contrast to the six children per woman documented decades ago. The drop is not an isolated statistic. It is part of a broader transformation in how Costa Ricans are forming households, and the numbers make the trend impossible to ignore. Of the roughly 1.8 million households in the country, 14 percent — nearly 270,000 homes — are made up of couples without children. The profile of these households, however, is far f...