Afro-Costa Rican Day: history, laws and census figures

On 31 August Costa Rica marks the Day of Black People and Afro-Costa Rican Culture, and all of August is the Historical Month of Afro-Descendants. Here is the history of the Afro-Caribbean population step by step, the laws that created the date and what the official figures say.

The history, step by step

From 1872, thousands of Caribbean workers, mostly from Jamaica, arrived in Limón to build the railway to the Atlantic, meant to carry coffee out. They came for a while, but with the banana industry many stayed. Naturalisation came in 1955, 83 years after the first ships, according to material by the Ministry of Public Education prepared with the International Organization for Migration.

1. 1
   1862, the closed door. The Settlement and Colonisation Law bans colonisation by African and Chinese people.
2. 2
   1872, the Lizzy. That year several ships bring workers from across the Caribbean; the Lizzy, the first to reach Puerto Limón, arrives on 20 December.
3. 3
   1899, bananas. The United Fruit Company takes hold and many workers who had come for a short time decide to stay.
4. 4
   1934, segregation by law. The Government tells its consuls not to issue visas to people “of the black race” and, in December, Law 31 bans employing “coloured people” on the banana plantations moving to the South Pacific.
5. 5
   1953 and 1955, citizenship. Álex Curling Delisser is elected deputy for Limón, the first Afro-Costa Rican deputy, and drives Law 1902, the “Curling Law”, which leads to wide naturalisation of Afro-Caribbeans.
6. 6
   2011 to 2021, recognition. Law 8938 creates the Day of Black People (2011), Law 9526 declares August the Historical Month of Afro-Descendants (2018) and Law 10050 makes it a public holiday (2021).

Timeline

What the 2011 Census says

The figures in this section are from INEC's 2011 Census, the last complete census count of this population: the 2022 Census had partial coverage, as INEC itself confirmed. In 2011 the census widened its ethnic-racial self-identification question: it added a “white or mestizo” option and separated “Black or Afro-descendant” from “mulatto”.

Limón was home to 40.1 % of the people who identified as Black or Afro-descendant, but one in four (24.9 %) lived in San José. Within Limón, 51,344 people identified as Black, Afro-descendant or mulatto: 13.3 % of the province.

Curious facts

• It is a myth that a law stopped Afro-Caribbeans from going past Turrialba: according to the Ministry of Public Education, there is no evidence of such a policy, although the idea grew out of real discriminatory practices.
• Limón's Grand Gala Parade, part of the official 31 August celebration, is Intangible Cultural Heritage of Costa Rica under Law 10148.
• In the 2000 Census the options were limited to Chinese, Afro-Costa Rican and Indigenous people; with the new 2011 question, the Afro-descendant population went from 1.9 % to 7.75 %, according to an analysis by Epsy Campbell Barr published by INEC.
• The same analysis notes that part of the Afro population has Limón Creole English as its mother tongue, something the census did not ask about.
• From the first holiday in 2022 to the one in 2025, 31 August was never taken on a weekday: it was moved to Sunday or fell on a weekend.

Frequently asked questions

Is 31 August a public holiday in Costa Rica?

Yes. Since Law 10050, published on 22 November 2021, article 148 of the Labour Code lists it as a public holiday, but its pay is optional. No one is required to work it, according to the Ministry of Labour.

How is it paid?

According to the Ministry of Labour, people paid weekly get no pay for the day if they do not work it, and an extra single day's pay if they do. With monthly or fortnightly pay the day is already included in the salary, and if it is worked it is paid double.

Is it moved to another day?

Not today. The holiday-moving laws covered 2020 to 2024, and in this case moved it to Sunday in 2022 and 2023. In 2026 it was taken on Monday 31 August itself, according to the Ministry of Labour's official calendar. In 2027 it falls on a Tuesday.

Sources

• Ministry of Public Education and International Organization for Migration: “La ciudadanía afrocaribeña y su incorporación a la vida nacional en Costa Rica” (2026).
• Law 8938, Day of Black People and Afro-Costa Rican Culture, La Gaceta 100 (25 May 2011).
• Law 9526, August as Historical Month of Afro-Descendants, La Gaceta 73 (26 April 2018), and Law 10050, La Gaceta 225 (22 November 2021).
• INEC: 2011 Census, General Results (table 14), and “Afrodescendientes y multiculturalismo según el Censo 2011”, by Epsy Campbell Barr.
• El Mundo CR: “Pese a ampliación, cobertura del Censo 2022 fue parcial, confirma INEC” (20 July 2023).
• Ministry of Labour and Social Security: press release of 28 August 2023 and 2026 holiday calendar (4 December 2025).
• CRHoy: “Por primera vez el feriado del 31 de agosto se celebrará entre semana” (23 July 2026).
• Ombudsman's Office: “Defensoría celebrará mes histórico de la Afrodescendencia” (5 August 2026).
• Political Constitution, article 1, amended by Law 9305 (24 August 2015).