Home / Country / Costa Rica vs Montenegro

Costa Rica vs Montenegro

Price level and homicide-based safety head to head, plus every ICP category both Costa Rica and Montenegro publish. Statistics, not reviews.

Price gap 21%Safety gap −47 ptsHealth -72%Price categories 25Release v2026-08Price gap 21%Safety gap −47 ptsHealth -72%Price categories 25Release v2026-08Price gap 21%Safety gap −47 ptsHealth -72%Price categories 25Release v2026-08Price gap 21%Safety gap −47 ptsHealth -72%Price categories 25Release v2026-08Price gap 21%Safety gap −47 ptsHealth -72%Price categories 25Release v2026-08Price gap 21%Safety gap −47 ptsHealth -72%Price categories 25Release v2026-08

1Visa-free traveltourist stays

Do I need a visa for Costa Rica or Montenegro

Tourist entry rules in both directions: a passport from Costa Rica travelling to Montenegro, and a passport from Montenegro travelling to Costa Rica.

Costa Rica passport → MontenegroVisa-free · 90 days
Montenegro passport → Costa RicaVisa-free · 180 days
Long-term stay, either wayResidence permit

Tourist stays only, refreshed with each release. Long stays always need a consular check.

Scorecard

Line by line, who comes out ahead

Montenegro takes 5 of the 7 lines and Costa Rica 2. The widest gap is homicides per 100,000, 2147%.

LineCOSMONAhead
Homicides per 100,000 17.8 0.8 MON 2147%
Health price level 129 35.6 MON 262%
Housing price level 67.4 49.6 MON 36%
Transport price level 83.6 110.3 COS 32%
Food price level 124.2 95 MON 31%
Income per head, a month $1,494 $1,179 COS 27%
Overall price level 62.5 49.6 MON 26%

Lower wins for prices and homicides, higher for income. Lines within 2% count as level.

3Climate · capital cities

Weather and climate: Costa Rica against Montenegro, month by month

How warm and how wet each month is, averaged over twenty years. Measured in San Jose and Podgorica — the capital city, not the whole country.

Pinch with two fingers to zoom · double-tap to reset.

San Jose · Costa Rica Podgorica · Montenegro

Warmest

April (22.3°) vs August (21.2°)

Coldest

January — 20.6° vs -0.6°

Kinder months to visit

Jan–Apr, Dec in San Jose · Jun–Sep in Podgorica

“Kinder months” is our own reading: a mean of 15–26 °C with moderate rain, measured at the capital.

4The basket

25 price tags, Costa Rica against Montenegro

World = 100, benchmark 2021 — sorted by the size of the gap. Diff is Montenegro relative to Costa Rica.

Category COS MON — Diff
Health 129.0 35.6 — -72%
Transport services 84.8 140.4 — +66%
Education 67.9 33.1 — -51%
Milk, cheese, eggs 145.8 90.3 — -38%
Bread & cereals 143.5 94.5 — -34%
Transport 83.6 110.3 — +32%
Fish & seafood 170.4 124.8 — -27%
Housing & utilities 67.4 49.6 — -26%
Alcohol 138.6 102.3 — -26%
Fruit 133.7 100.8 — -25%
Food 124.2 95.0 — -24%
Vegetables 156.8 120.2 — -23%
Food & non-alcoholic drinks 124.5 96.1 — -23%
Clothing & footwear 100.4 121.3 — +21%
Household consumption (total) 89.1 72.5 — -19%
Non-alcoholic beverages 125.4 105.0 — -16%
Meat 93.5 78.9 — -16%
Furnishings & household 74.8 86.1 — +15%
Recreation 90.0 77.9 — -13%
Sugar & sweets 120.7 104.8 — -13%
Restaurants & hotels 89.2 78.0 — -13%
Tobacco 82.8 72.6 — -12%
Vehicle purchase 114.4 105.6 — -8%
Oils & fats 95.7 89.3 — -7%
Communication 112.6 114.0 — +1%
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3Price level · US = 100

Price levels
62.5 Costa Rica+26% vs Montenegro
49.6 Montenegro-21% vs Costa Rica

on the price-level index · gap 26% · Montenegro cheaper

Moving to Montenegro

Costa Rica → Montenegro

Montenegro is the cheaper side by a margin: $1,000 of spending in Costa Rica covers the same as about $794 there.

Price level on arrival-21%
$1,000 of spending becomes$794
Income per head-21%
Homicide rate-96%
Coldest month−21.2°C

Moving to Costa Rica

Montenegro → Costa Rica

A pricier destination: Costa Rica sits 26% above Montenegro on overall prices.

Price level on arrival+26%
$1,000 of spending becomes$1,260
Income per head+27%
Homicide rate+2147%
Coldest month+21.2°C

6Three movers, three answersderived from the figures above

Three answers

The earner

Wages usually track local prices: the 21% gap matters less when the paycheck is local too.

Montenegro

The remote worker

A salary pegged elsewhere buys more where prices are lower — here that is Montenegro.

Montenegro

The cautious

The homicide-based score is 47 points apart, favouring Montenegro.

Montenegro

10What the numbers say

The split: cost favours Montenegro by 21%, the homicide-based score favours Montenegro by 47 points. Which matters more depends on whose paycheck crosses the border.

Editor’s note. Averages hide category stories: the widest single gap here is Health at -72%. Budget the move by category, not by the headline number.

Release v2026-08; homicide rates carry their own year per country. World ranks — #67 and #14 of 85 by score.

11FAQ

What people ask about this pair
Is Costa Rica cheaper than Montenegro?
No — Montenegro is 21% cheaper overall. The price levels are 49.6 in Montenegro and 62.5 in Costa Rica, with the United States at 100.
Which has the lower homicide rate, Costa Rica or Montenegro?
Montenegro: 0.8 per 100,000 people against 17.8.
Which costs differ most between Costa Rica and Montenegro?
Health — its price level is 262% higher in Costa Rica, the widest gap of the main spending categories.
Which has milder winters, Costa Rica or Montenegro?
Costa Rica. The coldest month averages 20.6°C there against -0.6°C, measured at the capital.
What salary in Montenegro matches $3,000 a month in Costa Rica?
About $2,380 a month, going by the overall price levels of the two. It is a like-for-like estimate of spending power, not a quote for any particular job.

12Compare

Another pair of countries

Both directions live on the same page — order does not matter.

13Sources & licences

Sources behind this comparison

Our calculations, not official figures.

Sources: World Bank WDI · ICP 2021 · UNODC via WDI · Passport Index · NASA POWER · Eurostat · BLS · Statistics Canada · release v2026-08

Price level index (Households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure)

Rights holder: The World Bank · World Development Indicators, PA.NUS.PRVT.PLI · reference year 2025 · accessed 22 July 2026 · data.worldbank.org · licence: CC BY 4.0, reuse subject to the World Bank Dataset Terms of Use. Values are reproduced as published; United States = 100 is the indicator’s own base. Every ranking, gap and comment is a Costely calculation. Note: The World Bank does not endorse this site.

Price level indices by expenditure category

Rights holder: The World Bank · International Comparison Program 2021, measure PX.WL · benchmark year 2021, published May 2024 · accessed 22 July 2026 · worldbank.org · licence: CC BY 4.0 — commercial use permitted, subject to the World Bank Dataset Terms of Use. World = 100 — a different base from the summary index above; the two are deliberately not merged.

Intentional homicides (per 100,000 people)

Rights holder: The World Bank (distribution); original data provider: UNODC (Intentional Homicide, UN-CTS) · WDI VC.IHR.PSRC.P5 · latest available year per country, marked on the page · accessed 22 July 2026 · data.worldbank.org · licence: CC BY 4.0 — these terms describe the World Bank distribution, not a licence we assign to UNODC data. Rates are reproduced exactly as published, per 100,000 population. Note: the homicide-based score — clamp(105 − 20·ln(1 + rate), 0, 100) — is our construction, not a World Bank or UNODC indicator, and covers intentional homicide only.

Visa-free travel and entry rules

Rights holder: Passport Index (Arton Capital) · open dataset · accessed 8 August 2026 · passport-index-dataset · licence: MIT — commercial use permitted with attribution. Codes cover tourist stays only; day counts are reproduced as published. Note: entry rules change frequently — always confirm with the consulate before booking.

Monthly temperature and rainfall

Rights holder: NASA Langley Research Center · POWER Project, MERRA-2 monthly climatology, T2M and PRECTOTCORR · averaging period January 2001 – December 2020 · accessed 13 August 2026 · power.larc.nasa.gov · U.S. Government work, public domain — free to use, including commercially. Each figure is the model grid cell containing the capital city, reproduced as published. Note: the capital is not the whole country, and the “kinder months to visit” band (15–26 °C mean, moderate rain) is a Costely reading, not a NASA recommendation. NASA does not endorse this site.

Wages in Europe

Rights holder: European Union, Eurostat · Structure of Earnings Survey, earn_ses_monthly — median and mean gross monthly earnings, all employees, industry, construction and services except public administration · reference year 2022 · accessed 14 August 2026 · ec.europa.eu/eurostat · reuse authorised with acknowledgement of the source, including for commercial purposes. Figures are reproduced as published; PPS values are Eurostat’s own adjustment for price differences between countries. Note: gross pay before tax and social contributions; the survey runs every four years, so 2022 is the latest wave. The European Commission does not endorse this site.

Pay by occupation group in Europe

Rights holder: European Union, Eurostat · Structure of earnings survey 2022 (earn_ses22_21), mean monthly earnings by occupation · mean gross monthly earnings in euro, enterprises with 10 employees or more, all ages, both sexes · retrieved 20 August 2026 via the Eurostat dissemination API · ec.europa.eu/eurostat · reuse authorised with acknowledgement of the source, including for commercial purposes. Earnings are reproduced as published; the difference column is a Costely calculation. Note: These are means, not medians, so large salaries pull them up; they are gross, before tax and social contributions. The survey runs every four years, so 2022 is the latest round. Occupations are the nine broad ISCO-08 groups — Europe publishes nothing finer, unlike the United States. Coverage is limited to EU, EFTA and candidate countries. These are means, while the median wage card on the same page comes from the same survey but is a different measure, so the two figures will not match. The European Commission does not endorse this site.

Food price levels in Europe

Rights holder: European Union, Eurostat · Purchasing power parities, price level indices by expenditure category (prc_ppp_ind) · EU27_2020 = 100, reference year 2024 · retrieved 20 August 2026 via the Eurostat dissemination API · ec.europa.eu/eurostat · reuse authorised with acknowledgement of the source, including for commercial purposes. Index values are reproduced as published; the difference column is a Costely calculation. Note: these are price levels, not prices — 100 is the EU average of the same year, so a value of 120 means dearer than the EU average by a fifth, and nothing about what a kilo costs. This measure is shown only when both countries of a pair are covered by Eurostat, which is the EU, EFTA and candidate countries; every other pair keeps the World Bank benchmark of 2021 on the World = 100 base, and the two must not be read against each other. A price level index says how a country compares with the EU average in the same year, not what anything costs. Values above 100 mean dearer than the EU average, below 100 cheaper. Coverage is limited to EU, EFTA and candidate countries, and this block is shown only when both countries are covered. The European Commission does not endorse this site.

Household energy prices in Europe

Rights holder: European Union, Eurostat · Energy prices for household consumers, bi-annual data (nrg_pc_204 electricity, nrg_pc_202 gas) · 2025-S2 · retrieved 20 August 2026 via the Eurostat dissemination API · ec.europa.eu/eurostat · reuse authorised with acknowledgement of the source, including for commercial purposes. Consumption bands: electricity band DC, 2 500-4 999 kWh a year; gas band D2, 20-199 GJ a year; both including all taxes and levies. Prices are in euro and reproduced as published; the difference column is a Costely calculation. Note: coverage is limited to EU, EFTA and candidate countries, because the reuse terms do not extend to data about other countries. Prices are per kilowatt-hour for a typical household band, including all taxes and levies, as published. Where a country has not reported the latest half-year, its most recent reported half-year is used and named in the row. Coverage is limited to EU, EFTA and candidate countries. The European Commission does not endorse this site.

Household spending per person

Rights holder: The World Bank · World Development Indicators, household final consumption expenditure per capita · spending per person converted to a month, in current US dollars · accessed not recorded — collected before the plugin stored provenance in the file · data.worldbank.org · licence: CC BY 4.0, reuse subject to the World Bank Dataset Terms of Use. Used only as the starting point of the cost planner; the split by category uses the International Comparison Program 2021 ratios listed above, and household size is scaled on the OECD-modified equivalence scale. Note: The monthly figure and the flag marking an estimated year are Costely calculations. The World Bank does not endorse this site.

Wages in the United States

Rights holder: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · Current Employment Statistics, national — average weekly earnings of all employees, total private, CES0500000011 · retrieved 14 August 2026 via the BLS Public Data API · bls.gov/ces · work of the U.S. Government, public domain — free to reuse, including commercially. The monthly figure is a Costely conversion from weekly earnings. Note: this is an average, while the European figures are medians, so the two are not measured the same way; averages sit above medians. BLS.gov cannot vouch for data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov. The BLS does not endorse this site.

Wages in Canada

Rights holder: Statistics Canada · Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours, table 14-10-0223-01, vector 79311153 — average weekly earnings including overtime, all employees, industrial aggregate excluding unclassified businesses, seasonally adjusted · May 2026 · accessed 14 August 2026 · www150.statcan.gc.ca · Statistics Canada Open Licence — reuse and redistribution permitted, including commercially, with acknowledgement of source. Reproduced and distributed on an “as is” basis with the permission of Statistics Canada. The published value is weekly; the monthly figure and the conversion to US dollars are Costely calculations. Note: this is a mean, unlike the Eurostat medians. Statistics Canada does not endorse this website.