Air pollution threatens the health of 5.2 million people across 7 regions in Costa Rica. The average PM2.5 level is 13.4 µg/m³—2.7× higher than the WHO guideline.
Brought to you by Amrit Sharma
Costa Rica faces significant air pollution challenges. 100% of states exceed the WHO guideline for clean air. This is putting 5.2 million across 7 states at risk.
The average PM2.5 over 2023 was 13.4µg/m³. That's 2.7 times the WHO guideline for clean air of 5µg/m³.
This is equivalent of everybody, including children, smoking about 222 cigarettes in a year.
Every person in Costa Rica is losing 0.82 years of their life to air pollution. This isn't just a statistic—it's grandparents who won't see their grandchildren graduate. Parents missing birthdays. Lives cut short. Breathing kills.
These stolen years come from diseases you know—COPD that makes every breath a struggle, lung cancer that turns healthy tissue deadly, heart attacks that strike without warning, strokes that change everything in an instant. Air pollution doesn't just kill. It damages your body from the inside, every single day.
Across Costa Rica, 4.3M years of life hang in the balance. That's the collective future being taken from 5.2 million people—simply by breathing.
The top 7 most polluted regions in Costa Rica by PM2.5 levels. These regions face the greatest health burden from air pollution.
Browse detailed air quality data for every region in Costa Rica.