Korea, Dem. People's Rep.

East Asia & Pacific. Low income. Capital: Pyongyang. Population 26,571,036 (2025).

Key trends

Life expectancy at birth (years)

Indicators

Each country reports for different years, so check the year beside every figure. Rank 1 is the highest value among countries with recent data.

Prices and jobs

Indicator	Latest	Year	5-yr change	10-yr change	Rank	Trend
Unemployment (modelled ILO estimate)% of labour force	3.5%	2025	−0.1 pp	0.0 pp	127 of 186

People and health

Indicator	Latest	Year	5-yr change	10-yr change	Rank
Populationpeople	26,571,036	2025	+434,724	+995,686	56 of 217
Population growth% annual	0.3%	2025	−0.1 pp	−0.2 pp	155 of 217
Urban population% of total	64.2%	2025	+1.6 pp	+2.9 pp	109 of 217
Life expectancy at birthyears	73.7	2024	+0.8	+1.3	119 of 217
Infant mortalityper 1,000 live births	13.3	2024	−1.0	−4.9	94 of 196

Education

Indicator	Latest	Year	5-yr change	10-yr change	Rank	Trend
Adult literacy rate% of people aged 15+	100.0%	2008 *	–	–	–

Access and infrastructure

Indicator	Latest	Year	5-yr change	10-yr change	Rank	Trend
Internet users% of population	0.0%	2004 *	0.0 pp	–	–
Access to electricity% of population	61.4%	2024	+13.0 pp	+23.6 pp	185 of 215

Environment and energy

Indicator	Latest	Year	5-yr change	10-yr change	Rank	Trend
Renewable energy% of final energy consumption	14.7%	2021	−9.3 pp	−0.1 pp	125 of 212

* Latest figure is too old to be included in rankings or peer medians.

Advanced metrics

Indicator	Own history		Versus peers (latest)			Growth and catch-up
Indicator	10-yr mean	Z-score	Income group median	Region median	Volatility (σ)	10-yr CAGR	% of high-income median	10 yrs earlier
Unemployment (modelled ILO estimate)	3.5%	+0.3	4.4%	3.0%	0.1	–	–	–
Population	26,067,488	+1.6	24,074,580	1,418,517	310,857	+0.4%	907%	973%
Population growth	0.4%	−2.1	2.6%	0.6%	0.1	–	–	–
Urban population	62.5%	+1.9	34.5%	65.4%	0.9	–	–	–
Life expectancy at birth	73.1	+1.7	63.8	73.0	0.4	–	–	–
Infant mortality	15.3	−1.4	43.0	13.9	1.5	–	–	–
Internet users	0.0%	–	–	–	0.0	–	–	–
Access to electricity	47.4%	+2.2	43.7%	100.0%	6.5	–	–	–
Renewable energy	15.9%	−0.2	76.9%	11.4%	5.3	–	–	–

How the advanced metrics are calculated. Change: latest value minus the value 5 or 10 years earlier, using the nearest observation within two years where the exact year is missing (percentage points for % series). CAGR: (latest ÷ earlier value)^(1 ÷ years between) − 1 over about 10 years, shown only for positive levels such as income and population. Volatility: standard deviation of the 10 observations before the latest. Z-score: how many standard deviations the latest value sits from that 10-year mean. Rank: among countries whose latest value is within 3 years of the newest year for that indicator; 1 is the highest value. Peer medians: the same group of recent values, split by income group, region and world. Share of high-income median: the country's value as a percentage of the median high-income country in the same year, compared with 10 years earlier. A rising share means the country is catching up; it is arithmetic about the past, not a forecast.

Compare Korea, Dem. People's Rep. with other countries

Source. World Bank, World Development Indicators (datacatalog.worldbank.org), licensed under CC BY 4.0. Data retrieved 2026-11-11. Some series are compiled by third parties such as the ILO and UN agencies and are subject to those sources' notes.

Changes made. ECONDEX has calculated all changes, growth rates, volatility, z-scores, ranks, peer medians and charts. The World Bank did not prepare, review or endorse them.

Read with care. The latest figure for each country is often one to three years old and different countries report different years. Some figures are modelled estimates. Ranks compare countries on values from different years and are not judgements of performance. Country names, groupings and boundaries follow World Bank usage and imply no view on the legal status of any territory.

Not advice. For information only. This is not investment, financial, legal or policy advice. Do not rely on it for decisions without checking the source.