---
title: "Costa Rica vs United States — area, population, currency"
description: "Costa Rica is 51,100 km² with 5,152,950 people; United States is 9,833,517 km² with 341,784,857. Area, density, currency, languages and time zones side by side."
url: https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/costa-rica-vs-united-states/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Costa Rica vs United States

**Costa Rica vs United States: United States is larger; United States has more people**

51,100 km² vs 9,833,517 km² · 5,152,950 vs 341,784,857

United States is 192 times larger than Costa Rica — 9,833,517 against 51,100 km². United States is 66 times more populous than Costa Rica — 341,784,857 against 5,152,950 people.

## Side by side

|  | Costa Rica | United States |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | San José | Washington, D.C. |
| Area | 51,100 km² | 9,833,517 km² |
| Population | 5,152,950 (2025) | 341,784,857 (2025) |
| Density | 100.8 /km² | 34.8 /km² |
| Currency | Costa Rican colón (CRC) | United States dollar (USD) |
| Official languages | Spanish | English |
| Time zones | UTC-06:00 | UTC-10:00, UTC-09:00, UTC-08:00, UTC-07:00, UTC-06:00, UTC-05:00 |
| Calling code | +506 | +1 |
| Drives on the | right | right |
| Continent | North America | North America |
| ISO codes | CR / CRI | US / USA |

## Population density

Costa Rica is 2.9 times more densely populated than United States — 101 against 35 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 United States dollar.
- United States spans 6 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.

## United States

Third or fourth largest country in the world depending on how China's area is counted. It spans six standard time zones across the fifty states, from UTC-10 in Hawaii to UTC-5 on the east coast. Death Valley holds the highest reliably recorded air temperature on Earth, 56.7 °C in 1913, and is 86 m below sea level; Denali, 5,500 km away in Alaska, is 6,190 m.

> 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 United States?

United States is larger — 9,833,517 km² against 51,100 km².

### Which has more people, Costa Rica or United States?

United States, with 341,784,857 against 5,152,950.

### What is the time difference between Costa Rica and United States?

Costa Rica is UTC-06:00 and United States is UTC-10:00, UTC-09:00, 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/)
- [United States](https://atoneplace.net/country/united-states/)
- [United States vs Vietnam](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/united-states-vs-vietnam/)
- [United States vs Vatican City](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/united-states-vs-vatican-city/)
- [United States vs Venezuela](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/united-states-vs-venezuela/)
- [India vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-united-states/)
- [China vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-united-states/)
- [China vs Costa Rica](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-costa-rica/)
- [United Kingdom vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/united-kingdom-vs-united-states/)
- [Japan vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-united-states/)
- [Canada vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-vs-united-states/)
- [Canada vs Costa Rica](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-vs-costa-rica/)
- [Australia vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/australia-vs-united-states/)
- [Australia vs Costa Rica](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/australia-vs-costa-rica/)

## 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]