 According to the World Bank, about 489,200 migrants lived in the country in 2010 mainly from Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize, while 125,306 Costa Ricans live abroad in the United States, Panama, Nicaragua, Spain, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, and Ecuador.The number of migrants declined in later years but in 2015, there were some 420,000 immigrants in Costa Rica and the number of asylum seekers (mostly from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua) rose to more than 110,000, a fivefold increase from 2012.In 2016, the country was called a "magnet" for migrants from South and Central America and other countries who were hoping to reach the U.S.

European Costa Ricans are people from Costa Rica whose ancestry lies within the continent of Europe, most notably Spain.