Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Costa Rica

Population below five meters above sea level in Costa Rica in 2015 — 2%. Ranked 87 in the world out of 215. Since 1990, the indicator has fallen by 0.09 pp.

2015 2% −0.01 pp vs 2000
World rank 87of 215
Period maximum 2.1%1990
Period minimum 2%2015

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Costa Rica, 1990–201522.032.052.082.11990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 2.1%2000: 2.01%2015: 2%
Change over the period: −0.09 pp Annual average: 0 pp

Comparison, 2015

How the value compares with the world and the groups this territory belongs to: Costa Rica

Costa Rica 2%
World 4.06%
Central America computed 1.25%
Population below five meters above sea level — Costa Rica, by year Costa Rica All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 2
2000 2.01
1990 2.1

Central America, 2015

The same indicator for neighboring countries — with links to their pages

About the indicator

The share of the population living less than five meters above sea level. The threshold is not arbitrary: this is the zone already threatened by storm surges and, over the coming century, by sea level rise. In absolute numbers the densely populated deltas of Asia come first; by share, island states and the Netherlands — and the latter show that a high share does not equal high risk, since everything depends on whether coastal defenses are in place.

Important: The series is not annual: the World Bank computes it from a digital elevation model for individual benchmark years, the latest of which is 2015, and has not updated it since. No one has fresher data of this kind; the values are best read as an order-of-magnitude estimate.

Source: World Development Indicators (World Bank), license CC BY 4.0.