List of Famous people born in Costa Rica

Porfirio Ricardo José Luis Daniel Oduber Quirós was a Costa Rican politician, lawyer, philosopher, poet, and essayist. He served as the President of Costa Rica from 1974 to 1978. He is credited with the creation of the Sistema Nacional de Radio y Televisión and the Universidad Estatal a Distancia.

Juan Carlos Rojas Villegas is a Costa Rican cyclist, who is currently suspended from the sport following a positive drugs test at the 2017 Vuelta Ciclista a Costa Rica. He won the 2013–14 UCI America Tour.

Rodrigo José Ramón Francisco de Jesús Carazo Odio served as President of Costa Rica from 8 May 1978 to 8 May 1982.

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría is a Costa Rican economist, lawyer, businessman and politician who served as President of Costa Rica from 1998 to 2002. He was minister of planning from 1968 to 1970 and minister of the presidency in 1970 during the administration of Jose Joaquin Trejos Fernandez ; member of the board of the Costa Rican Central Bank from 1966 to 1969; congressman from 1990 to 1993, serving as president of the Legislative Assembly during the 1991 to 1992 period; and was elected Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) in 2004. He voluntarily stepped down from this post to return to his country to face allegations of financial wrongdoing during his presidential tenure in Costa Rica. On April 27 of 2011 he was sentenced to 5 years in prison, but this ruling was later reversed in a December 2012 decision by an appeals court, which found him innocent of all charges.

Lorena Clare Facio is the former First Lady of Costa Rica and wife of former President Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría.

Alejandro Tadeo Ramírez Álvarez is a Costa Rican-born American chess player. At the age of 15, he became the first Central American to achieve the title of Grandmaster and the second youngest chess grandmaster in the world at the time.

Dora Emilia Mora de Retana was a noted Costa Rican botanist, known primarily for her work with orchids. She compiled an extensive catalogue of the variations of the flower found in Costa Rica which became the seminal reference work on the family Orchidaceae in the country for over a decade. There are at least five species of orchids named in her honor and in 2011, a plaque bearing her name was installed at the Lankester Botanical Garden to recognize her contributions to its development.

José Rafael de Gallegos y Alvarado was president of Costa Rica's Junta Superior Gubernativa from October 1822 to January 1823 and head of state of Costa Rica from March 1833 until March 1835 and again from May 1845 to June 1846.

Mario José Echandi Jiménez was the 33rd President of Costa Rica, serving from 1958 to 1962.