downstream outcomeobserved
- Raw value
- 660.82articles per million people
- Year
- 2023. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (IP.JRN.ARTC.SC)
- History
Costa Rica
Strongest usable evidence: Adaptability, at 65.9. Raise Experimentation first, at 22.1. Trust needs more evidence: confidence is 0.29.
Raise, lowest first
| Dimension | Confidence | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Experimentation | 0.53 | 22.1 |
| Building | 0.57 | 42.4 |
| Learning | 0.54 | 42.5 |
| Anticipation | 0.46 | 49.6 |
Measure before managing
| Dimension | Confidence | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Trust | 0.29 | 81.1 |
| Shared Purpose | 0.32 | 37.7 |
| Coordination | 0.37 | 90.8 |
| Agency | 0.41 | 51.4 |
These lists are the country's capability agenda, computed from the scores. Read the full agenda. It names comparable evidence from other countries and the 18 gaps in the registry.
Why this country is included: Small state that moved into high-value manufacturing and services without an extractive base.
Anticipation49.6Confidence0.46usableHow capable is the country of identifying and preparing for emerging change?
Costa Rica
Read Costa Rica beside up to three other countries, down to the indicator behind every row.
- Usable or good evidence
- Thin evidence, hollow point. The dashes open further as confidence falls.
- The point still sits at the score, because confidence never moves it.
- Click any axis to see every country on that dimension.
A score from 0 to 100 is a position inside the frame that all the benchmark countries set: zero is the weakest on a dimension and 100 is the strongest. A score of 10 puts a country near the floor of that frame and does not mean 10 percent of a capability.
| Coordination | 0.37 | 3 of 5 | 0.78 | no trend | no data | no estimate | |
| Trust | 0.29 | 3 of 7 | 0.83 | no trend | 68.0 | -13.1 | |
| Adaptability | 0.62 | 4 of 6 | 1.00 | no trend | no data | no estimate | |
| Agency | 0.41 | 3 of 5 | 0.72 | no trend | no data | no estimate | |
| Anticipation | 0.46 | 2 of 4 | 0.96 | +12.2(2) | 50.0 | +0.4 | |
| Learning | 0.54 | 3 of 4 | 0.78 | no trend | no data | no estimate | |
| Building | 0.57 | 4 of 6 | 0.90 | +4.7(3) | no data | no estimate | |
| Shared Purpose | 0.32 | 2 of 6 | 1.00 | +4.5(2) | 54.0 | +16.3 | |
| Experimentation | 0.53 | 6 of 9 | 0.88 | +1.8(3) | no data | no estimate |
How to read this page
Each dimension has a score from 0 to 100. It shows where this country sits among all 125 countries in the comparison frame, not a percentage. Confidence sits beside the score. A dashed radar edge and hollow point mean the evidence is thin. The records below show each indicator, its raw value, year and source.
A panel estimate, when present, is a separate judgment about what the indicators miss. It does not change the score or confidence. The panel's provenance is shown beside the estimate.
- direct capability measuredirect capability measure Measures the thing itself.
- capability inputcapability input Measures something that supports the capability.
- downstream outcomedownstream outcome Measures a result that usually follows from the capability.
- perception proxyperception proxy Records what people or experts say, not what they did.
Confidence
- very thin0.00 to 0.25
The score rests on one or two indicators. Do not quote it on its own.
- thin0.25 to 0.45
A minority of indicators, or evidence old enough to have moved. Read with care.
- usable0.45 to 0.65
Enough evidence to compare countries, with known holes.
- good0.65 and above
Most indicators observed, recent, from official or intergovernmental sources.
A row marked no dataset exists is a gap: the benchmark wants data that nobody publishes. A retired row has a source this project chose not to use. Both reduce confidence. The glossary defines each term, and the limits page lists where these numbers are known to be wrong about the world.
Anticipation
How capable is the country of identifying and preparing for emerging change?
+12.2 over 10 years, from 37.4 in 2016 to 49.6 on 2 indicators seen in both years.
Trends use fewer indicators than the current score and use today's frame. A longer span reaches further back.
direct capability measureobserved
- Raw value
- 90.985index 0-100
- Year
- 2024. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (IQ.SPI.OVRL)
- History
Government foresight capacity
direct capability measureno dataset exists- Raw value
- no dataindex 0-100
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- none
- History
- no data
Note: No comparable international dataset. OECD and UN work is descriptive, not scored. Envisioning would have to build this.
Long-horizon research commitments
direct capability measureno dataset exists- Raw value
- no data% of new grants
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- none
- History
- no data
Note: Redefined 2026-10-02 (D152). The row asked for the share of R&D spending classed as basic research, which is the make-up of a spending stock, the construct D142 retired business R&D share for. OECD MSTI publishes that share for its members only, and UNESCO UIS no longer serves R&D by type of research (construct audit, 2026-10-02). The behaviour behind it is a funder committing to a horizon: a grant awarded for five years or more is a decision to wait for a result. Untried: no memo has triaged a grant register. National funders publish award lists one by one with their own durations, and commercial grant aggregators fail the inspectability rule. Wireable on a grant-level register with award and end dates, on one definition of a competitive public grant, for half the frame or more.
Conditions, not scored
What the country has to work with on this capability. The values are shown as the source published them and are not part of the score, the confidence or the trend. The rank counts the countries with a value, best first.
R&D expenditureWorld Bank (GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS), 2023
0.34 % of GDP, rank 70 of 118. Gross domestic expenditure on research and development as a share of GDP.
A condition, not scored: money committed to research is what a country spends, and spending it does not show the country reads the future well (D122).
Researchers in R&DWorld Bank (SP.POP.SCIE.RD.P6), 2023
508 per million people, rank 66 of 114. Full-time-equivalent researchers per million people.
A condition, not scored: a standing stock of people who could investigate is what a country has, not a record of what they found (D122). Correlates with income but survives size normalization.
Secure internet serversWorld Bank (IT.NET.SECR.P6), 2024
2,000 per million people, rank 61 of 125. Servers using encryption in internet transactions, per million people.
A condition, not scored: a diffusion stock of digital adoption that money buys, not an act of anticipation (D122). Spans four orders of magnitude, so its rank is read on the published value and its correlations on the logged one.
Panel estimate, round 2, how this layer works
- 50.0 institutionalist@claude-opus-5-5, self-confidence 0.45
I hold at 50: INEC, MIDEPLAN and the institutions behind the decarbonisation plan and payment for ecosystem services are durable long-horizon organisations, and the panel agrees. The thin research base and absent foresight row keep it from rising further.
- 50.0 bottom_up@claude-opus-5-5, self-confidence 0.45
The panel agrees at 50 and I hold it: top statistical performance plus decades of long-horizon environmental planning and the Estado de la Nacion monitoring reports show an anticipatory habit, while the research base is thin. Agreement here reflects shared reasoning on sparse evidence, not certainty.
- 50.0 wealth_sceptic@claude-sonnet-5-5, self-confidence 0.40
Panel is unanimous. Statistical performance in the top tail for a middle-income country is a capability signal and the decarbonisation planning record is conversion of intent into policy; research output is small and foresight is unmeasured.
Agency
How able are individuals and organizations to turn an intention into action?
No trend is shown because too few indicators have values at both ends. The rows below still show the available history.
direct capability measureobserved
- Raw value
- 6.312per 1,000 aged 15-64
- Year
- 2024. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (IC.BUS.NDNS.ZS)
- History
direct capability measureobserved
- Raw value
- 23days
- Year
- 2019. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (IC.REG.DURS.MA.DY)
- History
direct capability measureobserved
- Raw value
- 10count
- Year
- 2019. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (IC.REG.PROC.MA.NO)
- History
Adults doing digital tasks
direct capability measureno dataset exists- Raw value
- no data% of adults
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- ITU / UNESCO UIS (SDG 4.4.1, ICT skills by type)
- History
- no data
Note: Redefined 2026-10-02 (D152). The row asked whether adults can perform standard digital tasks, which reads a skill level, the kind of stock D122 moved out of the scores with internet users. It now counts the act: a person who did the task. It is not the internet users condition beside it, which counts access. Candidate: ITU ICT skills by type (SDG 4.4.1) through the UNESCO UIS API, probed 2026-10-02. Sent a message with an attached file reaches 33 of the 53 countries then in the frame, 25 at 2018 or later, with no United States, India or China and most of Africa and Central America missing; two other task items reach 31 and 16. The items are self-reported and the task list has changed between rounds. Wireable on one task observed for half the frame or more at 2018 or later.
Perceived control over life
perception proxymissing- Raw value
- no datamean 1-10
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- Joint EVS/WVS (A173)
- History
- no data
Note: A perception: the publisher-weighted mean, on a 1 to 10 scale, of how much freedom of choice and control respondents feel they have over the way their life turns out, from the official Joint EVS/WVS 2017-2022 results table, release 5.0.0. It observes the felt capacity to act, not action. The table prints the mean to one decimal and no top-box share, so the row stores the mean and ties are common. Fieldwork years differ by up to six years: the 37 countries emitted were surveyed between 2017 (eight, the US among them) and 2023 (India), and every value is stamped with the release year 2022. Response style on 10-point scales differs across cultures, and a closed autocracy can read high: Vietnam and Nicaragua sit near the top of the frame. Countries with separate EVS and WVS samples (Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands) are held, as for interpersonal trust. See D127 and A15.
Conditions, not scored
What the country has to work with on this capability. The values are shown as the source published them and are not part of the score, the confidence or the trend. The rank counts the countries with a value, best first.
Individuals using the internetWorld Bank (IT.NET.USER.ZS), 2024
87.2 % of population, rank 53 of 125. Share of the population that used the internet in the last three months.
A condition, not scored: access to the basic tool of modern agency is what people have to act with, not a record of them acting (D122). Saturates near 95%, which compresses the top of the range.
Financial account ownershipWorld Bank (FX.OWN.TOTL.ZS), 2024
71.4 % aged 15+, rank 69 of 122. Adults with an account at a bank or mobile money provider.
A condition, not scored: holding an account is the precondition for almost any economic action, not the action (D122). Global Findex, published every three years.
Credit to the private sectorWorld Bank (FS.AST.PRVT.GD.ZS), 2025
51 % of GDP, rank 53 of 124. Domestic credit provided to the private sector by financial corporations.
A condition, not scored: financial depth is a stock of money available to actors, not what they do with it (D122). High values can also signal a credit bubble, so more is not always better.
Coordination
How effectively can independent actors organize around shared objectives?
No trend is shown because too few indicators have values at both ends. The rows below still show the available history.
Government effectiveness
perception proxyretired, see notes- Raw value
- no dataz-score -2.5 to 2.5
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- World Bank (GOV_WGI_GE.EST)
- History
- no data
Note: Retired 2026-08-26. The WGI aggregate the opinions of experts and firms, and in this set the four WGI series correlate with each other between 0.93 and 0.98 while correlating with log GDP per capita at 0.91. That is one perception of national wealth counted in three dimensions. Cross-agency delivery records are the replacement and they are a declared gap. See D23 and A4.
Regulatory quality
perception proxyretired, see notes- Raw value
- no dataz-score -2.5 to 2.5
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- World Bank (GOV_WGI_RQ.EST)
- History
- no data
Note: Retired 2026-08-26. Same measurement as government effectiveness, filed under a different name, correlating with it above 0.93. See D23 and A4.
Logistics performance
perception proxyretired, see notes- Raw value
- no dataindex 1-5
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- World Bank (LP.LPI.OVRL.XQ)
- History
- no data
Note: Retired 2026-08-26. The LPI is a survey of international freight forwarders, so it records how a country looks to global logistics firms. A small country with a small port scores low whatever its state can organise, which is artefact A9. Container throughput and border time are observable and stay. See D23.
direct capability measureobserved
- Raw value
- 20hours
- Year
- 2019. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (TRD.ACRS.BRDR.EXPT.BRDR.COMP.HR.DB1619)
- History
direct capability measureobserved
- Raw value
- 95.591percentage points from approved budget
- Year
- 2021. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (GF.XPD.BUDG.ZS)
- History
University-industry collaboration
direct capability measureno dataset exists- Raw value
- no dataindex 0-100
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- Global Innovation Index
- History
- no data
Note: GII carries it, but the underlying item is a WEF executive opinion survey whose microdata is not inspectable. Excluded on principle 4.
direct capability measureobserved
- Raw value
- 0.883index 0-1
- Year
- 2025. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- V-Dem (v2x_cspart)
- History
- one year
Public-private collaboration
direct capability measureno dataset exists, 1 record- Raw value
- no dataindex 0-100
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- none
- History
- no data
Note: No comparable dataset. PPP investment databases measure infrastructure finance, not collaboration capacity.
Behavioral check, not scored
Each number below is published beside the score and stays out of it. It is not in the frame, the average, the indicator count or the confidence.
Customs clearance time for exportsWorld Bank (IC.CUS.DURS.EX), 2023
4.194 days, lower is better. Average number of days to clear direct exports through customs, as reported by manufacturing firms that export directly, in the World Bank Enterprise Surveys.
Days a manufacturer that exports directly says its goods took to clear customs, from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys. It is the time the border took on firms' own shipments, current where the Doing Business border time this capability scores is frozen at 2019. It is not scored for two reasons. The number of firms behind each country's figure is published only in the survey microdata, and on a proxy from the published tables 37 of the 53 countries in the frame when it was checked clear 30 exporting firms; Mexico, the Philippines, Israel and nine others may not. And the question changed: surveys fielded from 2024 also ask how long release took across all border agencies, and drop an answer where customs alone took longer, so a country surveyed on both sides of the change can move severalfold with nothing at its border changing. India reads 17.3 days in 2022 and 2.5 in 2025, on more than 9,000 firms each time. No country in the frame has two surveys on the new questionnaire yet. Income is not why it is left out: it barely tracks log GDP per capita.
Evidence for missing indicators
Each record describes a case the indicators above cannot see. It does not affect the score or confidence because one case is not comparable across countries. A gap can become an indicator when a comparable series covers at least two countries.
FONAFIFO Payment for Environmental Services
Costa Rica's FONAFIFO Payment for Environmental Services programme paid contracts covering 208,089 hectares in 2024, disbursing â‚¡9.234 billion while using public, donor and market-linked finance to keep private land in forest uses.
208,089 hectares, hectares under payment for environmental services contracts, 2024. 9,234,000,000 Costa Rican colones, payments disbursed through the programme, 2024. FONAFIFO, Board meeting record and 2024 programme accounts, retrieved 2026-08-31.
How it worked: Costa Rica created a dedicated forest-finance institution that collects earmarked public revenue and combines it with donor and market funds, then pays landowners under monitored contracts for water, carbon and biodiversity services.
Limits: Contract hectares and payments show the reach of a conservation-finance mechanism, not whether forest cover is additional, permanent or evenly distributed. The board record is an administrative account from the programme operator; it does not independently verify carbon permanence, biodiversity outcomes or the counterfactual land use.
Trust
How much cooperation is possible beyond immediate personal networks?
No trend is shown because too few indicators have values at both ends. The rows below still show the available history.
Rule of law
perception proxyretired, see notes- Raw value
- no dataz-score -2.5 to 2.5
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- World Bank (GOV_WGI_RL.EST)
- History
- no data
Note: Retired 2026-08-26. A WGI perception composite correlating with control of corruption above 0.95 and with log GDP per capita at 0.83. Court throughput and case clearance rates are the observable replacement and are a declared gap. See D23 and A4.
Control of corruption
perception proxyretired, see notes- Raw value
- no dataz-score -2.5 to 2.5
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- World Bank (GOV_WGI_CC.EST)
- History
- no data
Note: Retired 2026-08-26. A WGI perception composite. It measures reputation for corruption, which is not the same thing as corruption, and it tracks income closely. Prosecution and audit records are the observable replacement and are a declared gap. See D23 and A4.
direct capability measureobserved
- Raw value
- 852days
- Year
- 2019. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (ENF.CONT.DURS.DY)
- History
downstream outcomeobserved
- Raw value
- 5.595% of firms
- Year
- 2023. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (IC.FRM.BRIB.ZS)
- History
downstream outcomeobserved
- Raw value
- 3.763scale 0-4 (never to always)
- Year
- 2025. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- V-Dem (v2jucomp_osp)
- History
- one year
Intentional homicide rate
downstream outcomeretired, see notes- Raw value
- no dataper 100,000 people
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- World Bank (VC.IHR.PSRC.P5)
- History
- no data
Note: Added 2026-08-26 by D23 as the observable replacement for two retired WGI perception composites, and retired 2026-08-27 by D44 when the diagnostic built in D42 measured what it was doing. It raised this dimension's correlation with log GDP per capita by 0.288, from 0.096 to 0.385, the largest single wealth contribution anywhere in the model. It was added to fix wealth contamination and it was the wealth contamination. The dataset is sound and the objection is to what it measures here: homicide is driven heavily by organised crime, a society can be physically safe while trusting very little, and across this country set the variation it carries is mostly income. Behavioural trust measures remain a gap.
Generalised interpersonal trust
perception proxymissing- Raw value
- no data% agreeing
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- Joint EVS/WVS (A165)
- History
- no data
Note: Share answering that most people can be trusted in the official Joint EVS/WVS 2017-2022 results table, release 5.0.0. The adapter uses the publisher-weighted country results, emits only countries with one survey row, and holds countries with separate EVS and WVS samples until the respondent-level weights can be pooled reproducibly. See D57 and D64.
Trust in public institutions
perception proxyno dataset exists- Raw value
- no data% expressing confidence
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- OECD Trust Survey / WVS
- History
- no data
Note: The OECD survey covers members only. Mixing it with WVS items for India and South Africa would break comparability. The Joint EVS/WVS confidence battery (E069) reaches 37 countries from one release, and confidence in the courts (E069_17) is published beside Trust as a check under this id rather than scored: every item of the battery tested (courts, civil service, police, parliament and government) reads higher in the closed and electoral autocracies of the frame than in its democracies, which is deference as much as confidence (A13). The gap stays open for a measure that does not reward a court that cannot rule against the state. See D132.
Cooperation beyond the in-group
perception proxymissing- Raw value
- no data% expressing trust
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- Joint EVS/WVS (G007_34_B)
- History
- no data
Note: The distinction that makes this dimension worth measuring: whether trust reaches a person with no tie to the respondent. Generalised trust asks about "most people", which a respondent can fill with their own circle; this item names the stranger. China is the clearest case, high on most people and low on a person met for the first time. The value is the publisher-weighted share answering trust completely plus the share answering trust somewhat, the one sum of two printed columns the adapter stores, exact to about 0.1, over all respondents including don't know and no answer. EVS and WVS ask the same question on the same four-point scale; where one country has both samples, the WVS share is a median 2.2 points higher. Trust in people of another nationality (G007_36_B), which the row once also named, is left out because it reads attitudes to foreigners as much as trust. Fieldwork runs from 2017 to 2023 and every value carries the release year 2022. Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands are held, as for interpersonal trust. See D140.
Court case clearance rate
downstream outcomeno dataset exists- Raw value
- no data% of incoming cases
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- CEPEJ / OECD / national court statistics
- History
- no data
Note: Whether a court finishes what it starts, counted from case records rather than asked in a survey. D23 named it as the observable replacement for the two retired WGI composites and it has stayed unfilled since. CEPEJ publishes it for Council of Europe members and OECD for its own members, so no single publisher reaches this country set, and a harmonised series needs the project second source adapter. See D57.
Panel estimate, round 2, how this layer works
- 68.0 institutionalist@claude-opus-5-5, self-confidence 0.40
Panelist C fairly notes that court compliance and low bribery are outcomes a stable democracy produces, and with both interpersonal items missing I trim to 68. I stay above C because the Sala IV and an independent judiciary are institutions that make cooperation with strangers enforceable, though 852 days to enforce a contract is a real weakness.
- 70.0 bottom_up@claude-opus-5-5, self-confidence 0.40
Court compliance and low firm bribery are strong, and cooperatives and ASADAS water associations show cooperation beyond kin that no survey row here captures. Panelist C's point that these conduct rows partly profile a stable democracy is fair and the survey items are missing, so I move down two points but stay well above 64.
- 66.0 wealth_sceptic@claude-sonnet-5-5, self-confidence 0.35
I move up slightly: cooperatives and community water associations are conduct, not income. But the high indicator score rests on court compliance and bribery, which a stable democracy yields, and generalised trust is missing and historically middling, so I stay below the others.
Learning
How effectively does the country acquire, distribute, and update knowledge?
No trend is shown because too few indicators have values at both ends. The rows below still show the available history.
direct capability measureobserved
- Raw value
- 0.629index 0-1
- Year
- 2020. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (HD.HCI.OVRL)
- History
direct capability measureobserved
- Raw value
- 36.779% of firms
- Year
- 2023. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (IC.FRM.TRNG.ZS)
- History
Adult learning participation
direct capability measureno dataset exists, 1 record- Raw value
- no data% of adults
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- Eurostat / OECD PIAAC
- History
- no data
Note: The best available measure of continuous learning capacity, and it exists only for European and OECD members.
downstream outcomeobserved
- Raw value
- 0.707ratio to world average
- Year
- 2021. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- OpenAlex (citation_normalized_percentile.is_in_top_10_percent)
- History
- one year
Conditions, not scored
What the country has to work with on this capability. The values are shown as the source published them and are not part of the score, the confidence or the trend. The rank counts the countries with a value, best first.
Tertiary enrolmentWorld Bank (SE.TER.ENRR), 2019
55 % gross, rank 58 of 124. Gross enrolment ratio in tertiary education.
A condition, not scored: enrolment counts people in formal education and records nothing learned (D122).
Public education expenditureWorld Bank (SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS), 2023
5.3 % of GDP, rank 28 of 125. Government expenditure on education as a share of GDP.
A condition, not scored: public spending on education is a pure input, and learning is what the dimension asks about (D122).
Vocational share of secondaryWorld Bank (SE.SEC.ENRL.VO.ZS), 2019
24.8 % of secondary, rank 27 of 125. Vocational pupils as a share of total secondary enrolment.
A condition, not scored: the share of secondary pupils on a vocational track describes how a school system is built, not what anyone learns in it, and higher is not unambiguously better (D141). It marks a route into skilled work that does not run through university. Learning reads research citation impact, firm training and the human capital index instead.
Evidence for missing indicators
Each record describes a case the indicators above cannot see. It does not affect the score or confidence because one case is not comparable across countries. A gap can become an indicator when a comparable series covers at least two countries.
INA national vocational training, and its contraction
Costa Rica's Instituto Nacional de Aprendizaje (INA) recorded 204,773 training enrolments in 2024, down from 313,276 in 2015 at the high point of its 2010 to 2019 plateau, a fall of about 35 percent that the 2020 to 2024 recovery did not reverse.
204,773 enrolments, ina total enrolments (gestión total matrÃculas), current, 2024. 313,276 enrolments, ina total enrolments at the high point of the 2010 to 2019 plateau, 2015. Instituto Nacional de Aprendizaje (INA), Unidad de Planificación y Evaluación, INA en Cifras 2024, Cuadro 8.1, retrieved 2026-10-01.
How it worked: Costa Rica built a single national training institute in 1965 and financed it largely from an employer payroll contribution, so INA could run free courses across every region without competing for annual budget allocations; after 2019 its enrolments fell back to roughly the level of the mid-2000s.
Limits: Enrolments are a count of course registrations at one provider, not the share of adults in education or training that the gap asks for: a person can enrol more than once, and INA counted 97,870 distinct participants in 2024, roughly 2 to 3 percent of the adult population on our own rough arithmetic, with private, university, employer and online training invisible here. The table is INA reporting on itself and is not independently audited. The series is not clearly comparable across the break: the 2020 to 2024 tables state that enrolments cover programme modules, certifiable modules, technical assistance and competency certification, and the same yearbook reports enrolments in services run by accredited outside entities separately (87,258 in 2023, 65,300 in 2024), so part of the fall may be reclassification rather than lost reach; the yearbook does not reconcile the definitions. The single highest year is 2009 at 382,786, an isolated spike, so the peak named here is the 2015 plateau high and the fall would read as about 47 percent against 2009. The steepest drop (266,679 in 2019 to 172,664 in 2020) is the pandemic year, but the decline had begun in 2019 and enrolments stayed near 205,000 to 212,000 from 2022 to 2024. The number says nothing about training quality, completion or job outcomes, and the PDF has to be opened and read off a table.
Experimentation
How easily can new approaches be attempted, tested, abandoned, and improved?
+1.8 over 10 years, from 8.4 in 2016 to 10.2 on 3 indicators seen in both years.
Trends use fewer indicators than the current score and use today's frame. A longer span reaches further back.
downstream outcomeobserved
- Raw value
- 15per million people
- Year
- 2021. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (IP.PAT.RESD)
- History
downstream outcomeobserved
- Raw value
- 8878per million people
- Year
- 2021. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (IP.TMK.RSCT)
- History
downstream outcomeobserved
- Raw value
- 9per million people
- Year
- 2021. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (IP.IDS.RSCT)
- History
downstream outcomeobserved
- Raw value
- 80748per million people
- Year
- 2026. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- GitHub Innovation Graph (data/repositories.csv)
- History
- no data
Venture deals
direct capability measureno dataset exists- Raw value
- no dataper million people
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- OECD / national VC associations
- History
- no data
Note: Redefined 2026-10-02 (D152). The id keeps its first name so evidence records, links and published files still resolve. The row asked for venture capital deployed as a share of GDP, a level of financial depth of the kind private credit is (D122). A count of first rounds counts attempts started with outside risk money, which is what this capability asks about, and a large round counts once. Candidates, none wireable: the OECD SME and Entrepreneurship Financing scoreboard carried venture capital for 6 of the 16 countries the frame held on 2026-08-26, as amounts in national currency, latest year 2022, with Brazil, India, South Africa and Singapore absent (D21); national venture capital associations publish counts on their own definitions; commercial deal databases cover the world and are not inspectable (D10). Wireable on an inspectable deal count with one definition of a first round for half the frame or more. Read A1 before treating this dimension as measured.
direct capability measureobserved
- Raw value
- 13.9% aged 18-64
- Year
- 2025. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (APS key indicators, TEA rate)
- History
- one year
perception proxyobserved
- Raw value
- 55.9% not deterred
- Year
- 2025. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (APS key indicators, fear of failure rate)
- History
- one year
Firms through regulatory sandboxes
direct capability measureno dataset exists- Raw value
- no datafirms per million people
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- national regulators
- History
- no data
Note: Redefined 2026-10-02 (D152). The row asked for the number and breadth of live sandboxes, which is a policy stock: a regime can exist with nobody in it. It now counts what passes through: firms a regulator let test under relaxed rules, and firms that came out, authorised, withdrawn or failed. Regulators publish cohort lists and exit reports one by one. The evidence corpus holds 22 records against this row, most of them counts of firms admitted or exited, each on the definition and window of its own regulator, and no register assembles them on one definition (O1 triage sweep, 2026-10-01). A realistic candidate for Envisioning to build from those lists. Wireable on a register that counts admissions and completions on one definition for half the frame or more.
University spinouts
direct capability measureno dataset exists- Raw value
- no dataper million people
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- national TTO associations
- History
- no data
Note: Reported nationally with incompatible definitions of what counts as a spinout.
Business share of R&D
capability inputretired, see notes- Raw value
- no data% of R&D
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- OECD MSTI / RICYT
- History
- no data
Note: Retired 2026-10-02. The only working source, OECD MSTI joined with RICYT for Latin America, covers 34 of the 53 countries then in the frame, but the row reads the make-up of a spending stock: who performs the R&D a country pays for. R&D spending itself is a condition since D122, and the share is high both where business research is large (Israel) and where total research is tiny and one firm dominates it (Thailand). State enterprises count as business, so China and Vietnam read their ownership model. UIS stopped publishing the series in 2023. Firms trying new things are read through patents, trademarks, designs and entrepreneurship instead. See D142.
Adaptability
How effectively can the system respond when circumstances change?
No trend is shown because too few indicators have values at both ends. The rows below still show the available history.
downstream outcomeobserved
- Raw value
- 6.843% of labour force
- Year
- 2025. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS)
- History
downstream outcomeobserved
- Raw value
- 12.3% of unemployed
- Year
- 2025. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- ILOSTAT (DF_UNE_TUNE_SEX_AGE_DUR_NB)
- History
- one year
direct capability measureobserved
- Raw value
- 0.282index 0-1, lower = more diversified
- Year
- 2025. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- UNCTAD (US.ConcentDiversIndices)
- History
- one year
downstream outcomeobserved
- Raw value
- 2.59% of products not exported competitively at the start
- Year
- 2024. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- Harvard Growth Lab (hs92_country_product_year_4.csv (doi:10.7910/DVN/T4CHWJ))
- History
- one year
Disaster preparedness and recovery
direct capability measureno dataset exists, 1 record- Raw value
- no dataindex 0-100
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- INFORM / UNDRR
- History
- no data
Note: No source observes a country preparing for or recovering from a real shock. INFORM publishes its lack of coping capacity apart from hazard and exposure, but that dimension averages government self-assessments and governance perception indices with stocks such as roads, phones and physicians, which is the perception layer D23 retired plus conditions money buys (D122). Sendai and WHO reporting are governments grading themselves. A warning-reach survey item is a check candidate. See the disaster preparedness memo.
Institutional responsiveness
direct capability measureno dataset exists, 2 records- Raw value
- no dataindex 0-100
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- none
- History
- no data
Note: No dataset exists. Measurable in principle from legislative and regulatory timestamps, which no one has assembled comparably.
Conditions, not scored
What the country has to work with on this capability. The values are shown as the source published them and are not part of the score, the confidence or the trend. The rank counts the countries with a value, best first.
Labour force participationWorld Bank (SL.TLF.ACTI.ZS), 2025
65.3 % aged 15+, rank 89 of 125. Share of the working-age population in the labour force.
A condition, not scored: how much of the population is in the labor force at all is what a country has to reallocate, a level set by norms, schooling and age, not a record of it reallocating (D141). Participation norms confound it, especially for India. Adaptability reads reallocation through long-term unemployment and export diversification instead.
Fixed broadband subscriptionsWorld Bank (IT.NET.BBND.P2), 2024
23.3 per 100 people, rank 56 of 125. Fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people.
A condition, not scored: installed infrastructure is what a country has to change with, not a record of it changing (D122). Penalizes mobile-first countries such as India and South Africa.
Electricity transmission lossesWorld Bank (EG.ELC.LOSS.ZS), 2024
9.1 % of output, rank 56 of 117. Power lost in transmission and distribution, including unbilled use.
A condition, not scored: the state of the grid, and whether its operator can bill what it delivers, is infrastructure a country has to change with, not a record of it changing (D141). Read it beside broadband, the other installed network beside Adaptability.
Informal employmentILOSTAT (DF_SDG_0831_SEX_ECO_RT), 2025
36.1 % of employment, rank 41 of 102. Informal employment as a share of total employment, SDG indicator 8.3.1.
A condition, not scored: how much work carries no contract, registration or social protection describes the labor market a country reallocates through, not it reallocating (D150). Read it beside the unemployment rate: where most work is informal, a person who loses a job takes any work within weeks, so a low rate is not a fluid market. Its direction for Adaptability cannot be defended, since informal work is both the slack that absorbs a shock and the precarity that keeps a worker from moving up, so the rank orders values and is not a verdict. Comparability is weak: the European values come from an income survey (EU-SILC) with a proxy definition, and the rest from labor force or household surveys processed by the ILO. ILOSTAT has no value for the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Israel, Malaysia, China, the Philippines or Cuba, and some values are old (Haiti and Nicaragua 2012).
Evidence for missing indicators
Each record describes a case the indicators above cannot see. It does not affect the score or confidence because one case is not comparable across countries. A gap can become an indicator when a comparable series covers at least two countries.
Certified digital signature across public services
Costa Rica's MICITT reported in October 2023 that more than 60 public institutions used certified digital signatures across more than 100 citizen services, with almost 75,000 certificates issued during that year.
100 services, public services using certified digital signature, 2023-10. 75,000 certificates, digital certificates issued during the year, 2023. Ministry of Science, Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT), certified digital signature update, retrieved 2026-08-31.
How it worked: Costa Rica combined a law granting electronic documents legal force with a national certification hierarchy, MICITT oversight and Banco Central support, then let agencies reuse the credential for signatures and online procedures instead of inventing separate trust systems.
Limits: Institution and service counts show adoption of a legal and technical rail, not completion rates, user equity, fraud resistance or savings. Certificates issued are not the same as active users, and the adoption figures are reported by the coordinating ministry rather than independently audited across agencies.
REDCUDI childcare network and SINIRUBE referrals
Costa Rica's IMAS reported that its national Childcare and Early Development benefit reached 25,704 children in 2024 with an investment of â‚¡13.2 billion, while interinstitutional referrals used SINIRUBE to match eligible families to available places.
25,704 children, children receiving the childcare and development benefit, 2024. 13,200,000,000 Costa Rican colones, social investment in the benefit, 2024. Instituto Mixto de Ayuda Social (IMAS), national childcare and social-programme report, retrieved 2026-08-31.
How it worked: Costa Rica linked IMAS, PANI, CEN-CINAI, local authorities and private providers through the REDCUDI network, using the SINIRUBE social registry to refer eligible families into available childcare capacity rather than asking each institution to target alone.
Limits: Beneficiary and spending totals show administrative reach, not child development, quality, waiting lists or whether the service enables parents to work. The programme combines several providers and modalities, so the national total can hide very different experiences and does not independently audit outcomes.
Ramp Up, PROCOMER's export-readiness programme
Costa Rica's export agency PROCOMER reported that 40 SMEs graduated from its 16-week Ramp Up 2024 programme, delivered with INA and the Sistema de Banca para el Desarrollo, bringing the number of firms benefiting since the programme began in 2021 to 175.
40 SMEs, smes graduating from ramp up 2024, 2025-02-26. 175 SMEs, smes benefiting since launch, 2025-02-26. PROCOMER, Ramp Up 2024 export-capability programme, retrieved 2026-08-31.
How it worked: PROCOMER, the national training institute and a development bank combine practical training in finance, strategy, governance and sustainability with export-market connections. The package builds the organisational routines and compliance readiness that small firms need before an overseas buyer or distributor can become repeat business.
Limits: Graduation and reach counts show programme delivery, not verified export growth, new markets, product diversification, export survival or causal impact. PROCOMER describes the firms as strengthening export capability; the source does not establish that all graduates exported or that the programme changed Costa Rica's aggregate concentration.
Hurricane Otto priority reconstruction works
In the 17 months to September 2018, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, under an agreement with the national emergency commission (CNE), completed 64 of the 65 priority reconstruction works after Hurricane Otto of November 2016, rebuilding 20 bridges and 211 km of rural roads for â‚¡18,500 million.
64 works, of 65 programmed, priority reconstruction works concluded, 2018-09-12. 18,500 ₡ million, investment in the priority works, 2018-09-12. Government of Costa Rica, Presidencia de la República press release, republished by ReliefWeb (UN OCHA), retrieved 2026-10-02.
How it worked: The CNE, which holds the national emergency fund and the declared emergency plan, contracted the state electricity and telecom utility as a single builder for the priority works instead of tendering each bridge, and coordinated it with the public works ministry and five municipalities.
Limits: The source is the government's own completion announcement; the original presidencia.go.cr page now returns 404 and the text survives in ReliefWeb's republication, which names the Government of Costa Rica as source. Completion is measured against the government's own list of 65 priority works, not against total damage: the same government estimated recovery needs at about â‚¡130,000 million, so â‚¡18,500 million is a fraction of the recovery and the record shows the priority tranche only. The started year is computed from the release's '17 months' and is not stated directly. The remaining work, a bridge over the Zapote river, was delayed by expropriation. Nothing here shows whether the rebuilt bridges and roads were built to a higher standard or maintained; the ContralorÃa has reported maintenance gaps on emergency-fund projects, but its document server refused connections today and that finding is not relied on.
Building
How capable is the country of turning plans and knowledge into functioning systems?
+4.7 over 10 years, from 21.5 in 2016 to 26.2 on 3 indicators seen in both years.
Trends use fewer indicators than the current score and use today's frame. A longer span reaches further back.
downstream outcomeobserved
- Raw value
- 13.577% of GDP
- Year
- 2025. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (NV.IND.MANF.ZS)
- History
downstream outcomeobserved
- Raw value
- 22.859% of manufactured exports
- Year
- 2024. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (TX.VAL.TECH.MF.ZS)
- History
Logistics infrastructure quality
perception proxyretired, see notes- Raw value
- no dataindex 1-5
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- World Bank (LP.LPI.INFR.XQ)
- History
- no data
Note: Retired 2026-08-26. An LPI sub-index, so the same freight-forwarder survey as logistics performance and the same problem. Electricity connection speed stays as the observable infrastructure measure in this dimension. See D23.
direct capability measureobserved
- Raw value
- 90.87score 0-100
- Year
- 2019. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (IC.ELC.TIME.DFRN)
- History
downstream outcomeobserved
- Raw value
- 0.124index
- Year
- 2024. The rail runs from 1960 to 2026.
- Normalized
- Source
- World Bank (EF.EFM.UNIV.XD)
- History
Large project delivery
direct capability measureno dataset exists, 2 records- Raw value
- no data% overrun
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- none
- History
- no data
Note: The single best measure of execution capability and there is no comparable international dataset. Assembling one is a defensible Envisioning project. Building mixes industrial output with state delivery capacity, and this indicator carries the delivery side: the other six indicators cannot see a national programme that was delivered. Documented deliveries are recorded in data/evidence and never scored, see D20.
Firm scale-up rate
direct capability measureno dataset exists- Raw value
- no data% of firms
- Year
- no data
- Normalized
- no data
- Source
- OECD DynEmp
- History
- no data
Note: OECD business dynamics work covers members irregularly. Nothing comparable for India, Brazil or South Africa.
Conditions, not scored
What the country has to work with on this capability. The values are shown as the source published them and are not part of the score, the confidence or the trend. The rank counts the countries with a value, best first.
Output per workerWorld Bank (SL.GDP.PCAP.EM.KD), 2025
64,823 constant 2021 PPP $, rank 47 of 123. GDP per person employed, constant purchasing power parity.
A condition, not scored: output per worker is income per worker, the wealth the benchmark tests capability against, so it is published beside Building as context (D122).
Evidence for missing indicators
Each record describes a case the indicators above cannot see. It does not affect the score or confidence because one case is not comparable across countries. A gap can become an indicator when a comparable series covers at least two countries.
ICE and a mostly renewable national electricity system
Costa Rica's integrated electricity system generated 89.4% of its electricity from renewable sources in 2024, while ICE reported electrical coverage reaching 98.7% of households despite one of the country's driest years on record.
89.4 % of generation, renewable share of electricity generation, 2024. 98.7 % of households, households with electricity coverage, 2024. Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, 2024 renewable-generation report, retrieved 2026-08-31.
How it worked: A state utility planned generation and controlled the transmission backbone, combining public hydro and geothermal investment with regulated contracts for private and cooperative wind, solar and biomass while extending the distribution grid to remote households.
Limits: The renewable share and household coverage are outcomes, not a project-by-project cost or schedule record. Hydrology, imports and thermal backup move the annual mix, and the utility report does not independently audit the full lifetime cost, reliability or distributional effects of the generation portfolio.
CCSS universal health-insurance reach
Costa Rica's Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social reported health-insurance coverage of 92.92% of the national population in 2024, using household-survey and administrative records to include contributors, dependents, pensioners and state-covered households.
92.92 % of population, population covered by the ccss health insurance, 2024. 360,124 people, population recorded as uninsured, 2024. Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social, Institutional Memory 2024, retrieved 2026-08-31.
How it worked: Costa Rica expanded a contributory social-insurance institution into a near-universal insurer-provider by covering dependents, pensioners and state-financed households through a common pool and an integrated primary-care network.
Limits: Insurance coverage is not the same as timely access, quality, financial protection or equal outcomes, and the estimate comes from a combination of survey and administrative data. It also does not show the operating cost or schedule of the facilities and workforce that make a legal entitlement usable.