San José — UN urban centre
San José: 2,171,213 people. Reference: 2025 annual estimate · World rank #235 of 12,138 source urban centres. Source: UN DESA, World Urbanization Prospects 2025 (CC BY 3.0 IGO). Source identifier: 346; territory: Costa Rica (CRI). UN source workbook.
Method: Degree of Urbanisation (contiguous 1 km2 cells, density 1,500+ people/km2, total 50,000+). This is a source-defined urban centre, not a municipality or province. No association with a separate administrative entity is inferred from proximity or name.
Source centroid: 9.9446, -84.0955. National context uses World Bank estimates, a separate series and geography; no national share is inferred here.
UN population series
| Year | People | Method |
|---|---|---|
| 1975 | 556,185 | Estimate |
| 1980 | 655,307 | Estimate |
| 1985 | 837,666 | Estimate |
| 1990 | 1,055,242 | Estimate |
| 1995 | 1,285,572 | Estimate |
| 2000 | 1,578,841 | Estimate |
| 2005 | 1,675,250 | Estimate |
| 2010 | 1,817,154 | Estimate |
| 2015 | 1,927,107 | Estimate |
| 2020 | 2,100,519 | Estimate |
| 2025 | 2,171,213 | Estimate |
| 2030 | 2,194,816 | Projection |
| 2035 | 2,216,152 | Projection |
| 2040 | 2,224,319 | Projection |
| 2045 | 2,232,300 | Projection |
| 2050 | 2,222,600 | Projection |
Largest UN urban centres · Fastest-growing urban centres
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