Historically, Catholicism enjoyed significant religious hegemony in Costa Rica. During the second half of the twentieth century, however, a growing process of religious diversity began to unfold. Catholicism lost a substantial number of parishioners, as did the Protestants, who had arrived in the nineteenth century, to Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal churches. According to recent research by Interdisciplinary Consulting in Development (CID) Gallup, 76% of those surveyed were born into Catholicism, but only 59% remained within that religion. Catholics regret having little contact with their priests, while Evangelicals on the other hand feel very close to their pastors. Today, the Catholic Church is suffering a ministerial crisis. It has not ordained enough priests to serve a population that grew from 2 million in 1960 to 5 million in 2020. In 1965, it had one priest for every 4,512 Costa Ricans; in 2018, one for every 7,113.

The different surveys carried out by the Center for Research and Political Studies (CIEP) at the University of Costa Rica (2018), the Institute of Population Social Studies (IDESPO) at the National University (2019) and CID Gallup (2020), give quite divergent figures that might be the result of employing different methodologies. There is a need for close examination of the changes that have taken place in each church and what it means for a parishioner to belong to one or another religious confession. For example, Catholics were found to identify themselves not by sacramental practice and attendance at Mass but rather by the values they claim to hold. Although only 3 out of 10 said they attend religious activities beyond Mass or weekly worship, 8 out of 10 said that religion is important in their lives. However, all three surveys show a reduction in the proportion of Catholics. Today they represent between 52% and 59% of the population. According to research from the National University, 52.5% of the population is Catholic and 27.1% Evangelical; 16.5% believe in God but do not subscribe to any religion, while 4% is distributed among religions of aboriginal peoples, Judaism, Islam and others. In total, 97% of Costa Ricans say they believe in God.

The most rapidly growing sector in recent decades has undoubtedly been the Pentecostals. This may be explained, at least in part, by their more agile scheme for provision of ministry.