---
title: "Costa Rica vs Mexico — area, population, currency"
description: "Costa Rica is 51,100 km² with 5,152,950 people; Mexico is 1,964,375 km² with 131,946,900. Area, density, currency, languages and time zones side by side."
url: https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/costa-rica-vs-mexico/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Costa Rica vs Mexico

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

51,100 km² vs 1,964,375 km² · 5,152,950 vs 131,946,900

Mexico is 38 times larger than Costa Rica — 1,964,375 against 51,100 km². Mexico is 26 times more populous than Costa Rica — 131,946,900 against 5,152,950 people.

## Side by side

|  | Costa Rica | Mexico |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | San José | Mexico City |
| Area | 51,100 km² | 1,964,375 km² |
| Population | 5,152,950 (2025) | 131,946,900 (2025) |
| Density | 100.8 /km² | 67.2 /km² |
| Currency | Costa Rican colón (CRC) | Mexican peso (MXN) |
| Official languages | Spanish | Spanish |
| Time zones | UTC-06:00 | UTC-08:00, UTC-07:00, UTC-06:00, UTC-05:00 |
| Calling code | +506 | +52 |
| Drives on the | right | right |
| Continent | North America | North America |
| ISO codes | CR / CRI | MX / MEX |

## Population density

Costa Rica is 1.5 times more densely populated than Mexico — 101 against 67 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 Costa Rican colón and the Mexican peso.
- Mexico spans 4 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.

## 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.

## Mexico

Mexico has the fourth-highest count of vertebrate and plant species of any country, and more reptile species than anywhere else. Chicxulub, under the northern Yucatán, is the roughly 180 km crater left by the asteroid impact 66 million years ago. The Sistema Sac Actun beneath the same peninsula is the longest known underwater cave system in the world, over 370 km surveyed.

> 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 Costa Rica bigger than Mexico?

Mexico is larger — 1,964,375 km² against 51,100 km².

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

Mexico, with 131,946,900 against 5,152,950.

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

Costa Rica is UTC-06:00 and Mexico is UTC-08:00, UTC-07:00, UTC-06:00, UTC-05:00. Daylight saving shifts the gap during the year in places that observe it.

## Related pages

- [Costa Rica](https://atoneplace.net/country/costa-rica/)
- [Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/country/mexico/)
- [India vs Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-mexico/)
- [China vs Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-mexico/)
- [China vs Costa Rica](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-costa-rica/)
- [Japan vs Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-mexico/)
- [Canada vs Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-vs-mexico/)
- [Canada vs Costa Rica](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-vs-costa-rica/)
- [Australia vs Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/australia-vs-mexico/)
- [Australia vs Costa Rica](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/australia-vs-costa-rica/)
- [France vs Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/france-vs-mexico/)
- [Germany vs Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/germany-vs-mexico/)
- [Italy vs Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/italy-vs-mexico/)
- [Mexico vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/mexico-vs-united-states/)

## 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]