---
title: "Brazil vs Costa Rica — area, population, currency"
description: "Brazil is 8,515,770 km² with 212,812,405 people; Costa Rica is 51,100 km² with 5,152,950. Area, density, currency, languages and time zones side by side."
url: https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/brazil-vs-costa-rica/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Brazil vs Costa Rica

**Brazil vs Costa Rica: Brazil is larger; Brazil has more people**

8,515,770 km² vs 51,100 km² · 212,812,405 vs 5,152,950

Brazil is 167 times larger than Costa Rica — 8,515,770 against 51,100 km². Brazil is 41 times more populous than Costa Rica — 212,812,405 against 5,152,950 people.

## Side by side

|  | Brazil | Costa Rica |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | Brasília | San José |
| Area | 8,515,770 km² | 51,100 km² |
| Population | 212,812,405 (2025) | 5,152,950 (2025) |
| Density | 25.0 /km² | 100.8 /km² |
| Currency | Brazilian real (BRL) | Costa Rican colón (CRC) |
| Official languages | Portuguese | Spanish |
| Time zones | UTC-05:00, UTC-04:00, UTC-03:00, UTC-02:00 | UTC-06:00 |
| Calling code | +55 | +506 |
| Drives on the | right | right |
| Continent | South America | North America |
| ISO codes | BR / BRA | CR / CRI |

## Population density

Costa Rica is 4.0 times more densely populated than Brazil — 101 against 25 people per km². Density is where area and population interact, and it often reverses the impression the headline figures give — a large country with a small population can feel emptier than a small crowded one by an enormous margin.

## Practical differences

- Different currencies: the Brazilian real and the Costa Rican colón.
- Brazil spans 4 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
- Different continents — South America and North America.

## Brazil

The fifth-largest country in the world and the largest in the southern hemisphere. It holds about sixty percent of the Amazon rainforest, and the Amazon River discharges roughly a fifth of all the fresh water that reaches the world's oceans — more than the next seven rivers combined. Brazil borders every South American country except Chile and Ecuador.

## Costa Rica

Costa Rica covers about 0.03 percent of the Earth's surface but holds roughly five percent of its known species. More than a quarter of the country is protected, forest cover has roughly doubled since the 1980s, and it runs on close to 100 percent renewable electricity most years. It has around sixty volcanoes, six of them active.

> Neutral facts only. Nothing here addresses politics, government, economics or which country is preferable in any respect — population is the one figure that dates, and it carries its year.

## Common questions

### Is Brazil bigger than Costa Rica?

Brazil is larger — 8,515,770 km² against 51,100 km².

### Which has more people, Brazil or Costa Rica?

Brazil, with 212,812,405 against 5,152,950.

### What is the time difference between Brazil and Costa Rica?

Brazil is UTC-05:00, UTC-04:00, UTC-03:00, UTC-02:00 and Costa Rica is UTC-06:00. Daylight saving shifts the gap during the year in places that observe it.

## Related pages

- [Brazil](https://atoneplace.net/country/brazil/)
- [Costa Rica](https://atoneplace.net/country/costa-rica/)
- [China vs Costa Rica](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-costa-rica/)
- [Canada vs Costa Rica](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-vs-costa-rica/)
- [Australia vs Brazil](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/australia-vs-brazil/)
- [Australia vs Costa Rica](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/australia-vs-costa-rica/)
- [Brazil vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/brazil-vs-united-states/)
- [Brazil vs India](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/brazil-vs-india/)
- [Brazil vs China](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/brazil-vs-china/)
- [Brazil vs United Kingdom](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/brazil-vs-united-kingdom/)
- [Brazil vs Japan](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/brazil-vs-japan/)
- [Brazil vs Canada](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/brazil-vs-canada/)
- [Brazil vs New Zealand](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/brazil-vs-new-zealand/)
- [Brazil vs France](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/brazil-vs-france/)

## Sources

- The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/) [Public domain (US Government)]
- World Bank Open Data — The World Bank (https://data.worldbank.org/) [CC BY 4.0]