Costa Rica: informal employment share 2023

In 2023, the percentage of informal employment in Costa Rica stood at 37.1 percent of the total employed population. The share of employment informality has decreased by almost three percentage points in comparison to the previous year, when 39.9 percent of workers were considered informally employed. Costa Rica has one of the lowest levels of informal employment in Latin America.

Informal employment as percentage of total employment in Costa Rica from 2014 to 2023

Characteristic	Share of total employment
2023	37.1%
2022	39.9%
2021	41.3%
2020	40%
2019	41.8%
2018	40.9%
2017	40.73%
2016	40.16%
2015	42.05%
2014	41.22%

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Release date

April 2024

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Region

Costa Rica

Survey time period

2014 to 2023

Supplementary notes

According to the source's definition: "Employment in the informal sector refers all persons who, during a given reference period, were employed in at least one informal sector enterprise, irrespective of their status in employment and whether it was their main or a secondary job. An informal sector enterprise is (1) an unincorporated enterprise and (2) a market enterprise (i.e., it sells at least some of the goods or services it produces), and (3) meets at least one of the following criteria: (i) the enterprise is not registered, (ii) the employees of the enterprise are not registered, or (iii) the number of persons engaged on a continuous basis is below a threshold determined by the country."

The release date given is the last update date provided by the source.

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