Costa Rica is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different races, ethnicity, and national backgrounds. The majority of the  population is composed of mestizos and whites, roughly 83.64%. Mestizos are mixed Amerindian and European ancestry (majority of them being of Spanish descent). 

The white population includes European Costa Ricans (of European ancestry), primarily of Spanish descent, with significant numbers of Italian, German, English, Dutch, French, Irish, Portuguese, and Polish families, as well a sizable Jewish community. 

The Mulatto segment (mix of white and black) represented 6.7% and About 2,42% of are indigenous, the descendants of the country’s original inhabitants.

Most of Indigenious live in secluded reservations, distributed among eight ethnic groups: Quitirrisí (in the Central Valley), Matambú or Chorotega (Guanacaste), Maleku (northern Alajuela), Bribri (southern Atlantic), Cabécar (Cordillera de Talamanca), Guaymí (southern Costa Rica, along the Panamá border), Boruca (southern Costa Rica) and Térraba [es] (southern Costa Rica).

1.05 % of Nicaragua’s population is black and mainly African ancestry and 0.21% of Chinese ancestry.

The racial composition is as follows

• Mestizos and Whites – 83.64%
• Mulatto – 6.72%
• Indigenous –  2.42%
• Black/Afro-Caribbean –  1.05%
• Chinese – 0.21%
• Other –  0.84%
• Did not state –  2.21%

Source: 2011 census