Education at a Glance 2026: Costa Rica
Table of contents
This country note for Education at a Glance 2026 provides an overview of the key characteristics of the education system in Costa Rica. In line with this year’s thematic focus, it emphasises teacher shortages while also covering other parts of the education system. The data in this note are provided for the latest available year. Readers are referred to the corresponding tables in Education at a Glance 2026 for notes and reference years.
Shortages of skilled workers have affected many sectors across the OECD in recent years, and the teaching profession is no exception. Teacher shortages manifest in different ways across education systems: in some countries, a lack of fully qualified teachers is reflected in a higher share of non-fully qualified staff, while in others a significant number of teaching positions remain unfilled.
Non-fully qualified teachers refer to teachers who do not yet meet all the requirements to be recognised as fully qualified teachers under national regulations. In most countries, they either possess the required academic qualifications but lack mandatory certification or teacher training, have completed the required teacher training but do not hold the required academic qualifications, or lack both. In Costa Rica, 2.9% of all primary and secondary teachers in public institutions were not fully qualified in 2024, below the OECD average of 9.1% in 2024/25 (Figure 1).
In per cent, full-time equivalents, public institutions
1. Year of reference differs from 2024/25: academic year 2023/24 for Denmark, Finland, France, Germany and Switzerland; calendar year 2024 for Chile and Costa Rica; calendar year 2025 for New Zealand; academic year 2025/26 for Japan.
2. Pre-primary and primary education are combined in France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Upper secondary education is excluded in Denmark, Israel and Switzerland. Upper secondary vocational education is excluded in Finland, Hungary and the Netherlands.
3. Teacher data are based on headcounts instead of full-time equivalents.
4. Year of reference differs from 2017/18: academic year 2018/19 for Bulgaria, the Netherlands, and Switzerland; 2019/20 for Luxembourg and Poland; calendar year 2020 for New Zealand.
5. Including government-dependent private institutions.
6. Teachers classified as non-fully qualified in these countries are in the process of acquiring full qualification.
For data, see OECD (2026) Education at a Glance 2026: OECD Indicators, https://doi.org/10.1787/b4968bbc-en, Figure 1 and Table 1.
Recruiting second-career teachers is a common strategy for addressing teacher shortages and helps to diversify the profile of the teaching workforce. According to the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2024, on average across the OECD, 8.4% of lower secondary teachers are second-career teachers; in Costa Rica, they make up 7.3% of all teachers (Table 5).
According to the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2024, a large majority of lower secondary teachers (68.4%) are satisfied with their terms of employment (barring salaries) on average across the OECD. In contrast, the share of lower secondary teachers who are satisfied with their salaries is much lower at 38.7% on average. In Costa Rica, 76.5% of lower secondary teachers are satisfied with their terms of employment and 44.8% are satisfied with their salaries (Table 5).
Teachers tend to be older than other workers. On average across countries with available data, 25% of secondary teachers are aged 55 and over, compared to 19% of employed individuals holding at least a master’s degree and 21% of the overall employed population. Costa Rica does not follow this pattern: 9% of secondary teachers are aged 55 and over, compared to 21% of employed individuals holding at least a master’s degree and 19% of the overall employed population (Figure 10).
The number of teachers a system needs is not determined by student numbers alone. On average across the OECD, measured in full-time equivalents, the number of teachers in public and private primary schools rose by 13% between 2015 and 2024, even though the number of primary students rose by only 2% over the same period, a divergence driven by policy choices around class sizes, teachers’ working hours and instruction time. In Costa Rica, the number of primary teachers increased by 8% over this period, while the number of students decreased by 3% (Table 7).
Looking ahead, the number of children aged 5-14 in Costa Rica is projected to decrease by 28% between 2024 and 2033, pointing to lower demand for teachers if other policies remain unchanged (Table 7). However, as argued above, demographic trends are only one factor shaping teacher workforce needs, and their effects can vary depending on how population change is distributed across regions. Teacher workforce needs also depend on policy decisions related to class sizes, teacher attrition and funding.
Educational attainment remains at an all-time high in 2025 as more people obtain advanced qualifications. Across the OECD, 43% of working-age adults (25-64 year-olds) have a tertiary qualification, while the share of adults with upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary attainment is slightly lower at 39%. In Costa Rica, the share of adults with tertiary attainment is below the OECD average at 28%, while the share of adults with upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary attainment is also below the OECD average at 21% (Table A1.1).
The share of young adults without upper secondary attainment continues to decline across the OECD, standing at 12% in 2025. This trend is also apparent in Costa Rica, where the share of 25-34 year-olds without upper secondary attainment decreased from 51% to 35% between 2015 and 2025 (Table A1.2).
While more young adults obtain a tertiary qualification, the share of individuals whose highest qualification is upper secondary with a vocational orientation is decreasing in almost all OECD countries. In contrast, the share has remained stable in Costa Rica, where 2% of both 25-34 year-olds and 55-64 year-olds have upper secondary vocational attainment in 2025 (Table A1.3).
Youth and young adults who are neither employed nor in education or training (NEET) are a key policy concern, as prolonged periods of inactivity at a young age can have lasting negative effects on socio-economic outcomes later in life. In Costa Rica, 20% of all 18-24 year-olds were NEET in 2025, down from 23% in 2015. For comparison, the average share of NEETs across OECD countries with available data for both years was 13% in 2025 and 16% in 2015 (Table A2.2).
Employment outcomes for recent tertiary graduates vary across countries and are shaped by economic conditions, labour demand, and public policy. In Costa Rica, the unemployment rate among tertiary-educated young adults decreased from 10% in 2015 to 8% in 2025. The corresponding rates across OECD countries with available data for both years were 7% on average in 2015 and 5% in 2025 (Table A3.3. and Figure 2).
In per cent of 25-34 year-olds in the labour force
Note: The OECD average on the right is based on a fixed sample of 34 countries.
For data, see OECD (2026) Education at a Glance 2026: OECD Indicators, https://doi.org/10.1787/b4968bbc-en, Figure A3.1 and Unemployment rates of adults, by educational attainment, age group and gender (indicator), https://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/570 (accessed on 27 August 2026).
The labour-market significance of advanced qualifications is also reflected in earnings. In almost every OECD country, workers without a tertiary qualification have earnings below the national average. In Costa Rica, full-time, full-year workers with upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary attainment earn 20% less than the national average and those with below upper secondary attainment earn 36% less (Figure A4.1).
Participation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is common among children from the age of 3 in all OECD countries. In Costa Rica, 72% of children between the age of 3 and the starting age of primary education (age 6 in Costa Rica) were enrolled in ECEC in 2024, lower than the OECD average of 90% (Figure B1.1). However, enrolment rates for younger children vary widely across OECD countries. Among 2 year old children in Costa Rica, 5% are enrolled in early childhood educational development programmes that meet the criteria of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) by combining education and care. This places Costa Rica at the lower end of OECD countries with available data (Table B1.1).
The number of primary and secondary schools – and thus their geographical proximity to students – varies across countries. Many countries have more primary than lower secondary schools, reflecting the desire to provide education close to primary students’ homes while offering secondary students the greater choice of specialist subjects that can only be provided by larger schools. In Costa Rica, there are 4.62 primary schools for each lower secondary school, well above the OECD average of 1.97 (Figure B2.4).
In most countries, there is no strong alignment between trends in the number of students and trends in the number of schools at lower secondary level. In Costa Rica, the number of lower secondary students increased by 1.05% annually between 2015 and 2024, while the number of lower secondary schools decreased by 0.60% annually over the same period. On average across the OECD, the number of students increased by 0.96%, while the number of schools decreased by 0.10% (Figure B2.1).
In OECD countries with available data for both years, average government expenditure on primary to tertiary education (based on final funds, inside and outside educational institutions) has decreased slightly from 4.4% of GDP in 2015 to 4.2% in 2023. Over the same period, it decreased from 6.4% to 4.7% in Costa Rica, thus demonstrating more rapid decline than in most other OECD countries (Figure 3).
Total government expenditure on education (inside and outside of educational institutions); primary to tertiary education
1. Data include or exclude some categories, please refer to the source table for more information.
For data, see OECD (2026) Education at a Glance 2026: OECD Indicators, https://doi.org/10.1787/b4968bbc-en, Figure C1.2 and Table C1.7.
Government expenditure on primary to tertiary education as share of GDP (based on final funds, on educational institutions, including R&D) varies by a factor of approximately two across OECD countries (ranging from 2.4% to 5.2%), while government expenditure per student varies by a factor of ten (from USD 3 398 to USD 32 832 adjusted for purchasing power parity) as differences in income levels mean nominal expenditure tends to vary more than relative expenditure. On average across the OECD, expenditure per student from primary to tertiary education was USD 13 601 in 2023, while in Costa Rica it was USD 7 028 (Table C1.4. and Table C1.1).
In early childhood education, government expenditure per child has grown substantially between 2015 and 2023 in many OECD countries. This was also the case in Costa Rica, where expenditure per child aged 3-5 in 2023 was USD 5 285 compared to USD 3 992 in 2015 (Table C2.3).
Government expenditure on education tends to rise with the level of education. In primary education, expenditure per student was USD 5 894 in 2023 in Costa Rica and USD 12 893 on average across the OECD. In lower secondary education, it was USD 5 794 in Costa Rica and USD 14 291 on average across the OECD. Thus, Costa Rica is among the few OECD countries where expenditure is lower at lower secondary level than at primary level (Table C3.1).
Expenditure can be divided into capital and current expenditure: the former finances investment in assets such as infrastructure, while the latter covers regular operating costs. Current expenditure can be further broken down into staff compensation and other current expenditure, such as purchases of goods and services and routine maintenance. In Costa Rica, 81% of current expenditure in primary educational institutions is dedicated to staff compensation compared to 79% on average across the OECD, while the remainder is dedicated to other current expenditure (Figure C3.3).
At upper secondary level, government expenditure per student can differ substantially between general and vocational programmes. Vocational programmes are often more expensive than general programmes due to the need for specialised technical equipment, while at the same time, private contributions, for example from firms, cover a larger share of overall costs in some countries. In Costa Rica, expenditure per student is USD 5 811 in general upper secondary programmes and USD 5 784 in vocational upper secondary programmes, compared to the OECD average of USD 12 421 in general programmes and USD 13 901 in vocational ones (Table C4.1).
As discussed above, most countries have increased their investment in pre-primary education in recent years. This is also reflected in the ratio of children to teachers. Across the OECD, the number of children enrolled at this level decreased slightly by 2% between 2015 and 2024 while the number of teachers increased by 14%, resulting in a 14% reduction in the child-to-teacher ratio. In Costa Rica, the number of children enrolled in pre-primary education increased by 10%, while the number of pre-primary teachers also increased by 40%, resulting in a 22% decrease of the child-to-teacher ratio (Data for chart D2.1).
In most countries, salaries of teachers in public institutions are lower than the salaries of other tertiary-educated workers, especially for teachers at lower levels of education. However, this is not the case in Costa Rica, where pre-primary teachers earned on average 25% more than other tertiary-educated workers, while lower secondary teachers earned on average 69% more than other tertiary-educated workers (Table D3.2).
Teachers spend only a fraction of their working time teaching; the remainder is devoted to other tasks, including lesson preparation and marking. On average across the OECD, primary teachers taught 770 hours per year compared to 710 hours per year in lower secondary education. In Costa Rica, annual typical teaching hours were 1 234 in primary education and 1 274 in lower secondary education. Thus, Costa Rica was one of the few countries where teachers in primary education did not have to teach more hours than their lower secondary colleagues (Figure 4).
Net statutory teaching time in hours per year, in public institutions
Note: Please refer to the source table for information on whether the data refer to typical, minimum or maximum hours.
1. Actual teaching time (in Latvia except for pre-primary level).
2. Reference year differs from 2023. Refer to the source table for details.
3. Average planned teaching time in each school at the beginning of the school year.
For data, see OECD (2026) Education at a Glance 2026: OECD Indicators, https://doi.org/10.1787/b4968bbc-en, Figure D4.1 and Table D4.1.
Women form the majority of teachers at all levels of education except tertiary. Teachers in pre-primary education are almost entirely women with 96% of teachers being female on average across the OECD. The share of women among pre-primary teachers in Costa Rica is slightly lower at 94%. At 58%, the share of female teachers in lower secondary education is lower, and it is below the OECD average of 68% (Table D5.1).
Across the OECD, women are more strongly represented among teachers than among school management staff. In primary education, women in Costa Rica accounted for 80% of teachers and 74% of school management staff in 2024, a gap of 6 percentage points. This gap was smaller than the OECD average of 15 percentage points (Figure D5.3).
Regular teacher appraisal as a quality assurance mechanism is common in some countries, but not in others. Costa Rica uses an appraisal mechanism with mandatory appraisals of teachers, as do 16 out of 29 countries and economies with available data (Figure D7.1).
Contact
For more information on Education at a Glance 2026 and to access the full set of indicators, see: https://doi.org/10.1787/b4968bbc-en.
For more information on the methodology used during the data collection for each indicator, the references to the sources and the specific notes for each country, see Education at a Glance 2026: Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes, https://doi.org/10.1787/dcf64a14-en.
For general information on the methodology, please refer to the OECD Handbook for Internationally Comparative Education Statistics 2018, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264304444-en.
Updated data can be found online at http://data-explorer.oecd.org/ and by following the StatLinks in the publication.
Explore, compare and visualise more data and analysis using the Education GPS: https://gpseducation.oecd.org/.
Questions can be directed to the Education at a Glance team at the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills: EDU.EAG@oecd.org.
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