--- title: "North Korea vs South Korea: the same people, 80 years apart (charts) | Save North Korea" description: Life expectancy, income, food, electricity, height and freedom in North and South Korea since 1945, in charts built from UN, World Bank, FAO and V-Dem data. url: "https://savenorthkorea.org/north-korea-vs-south-korea" language: en translations: en: https://savenorthkorea.org/north-korea-vs-south-korea ko: https://savenorthkorea.org/ko/north-korea-vs-south-korea ja: https://savenorthkorea.org/ja/north-korea-vs-south-korea zh-Hans: https://savenorthkorea.org/zh/north-korea-vs-south-korea --- ![The Korean peninsula at night. The bright blob is Seoul, the single dot up north is Pyongyang.](https://savenorthkorea.org/img/pages/korea-at-night.jpg) The Korean peninsula at night. The bright blob is Seoul, the single dot up north is Pyongyang. [NASA Earth Observatory, Black Marble 2016 (public domain)](https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/NightLights) [Data · North vs South](https://savenorthkorea.org/data)Same people · same language · split in 1945 # North Korea vs South Korea Same people, same language, same food. In 1945 the peninsula was cut in two along the 38th parallel, and for a while the two halves were roughly even (in 1990 people in both lived about 70 years). Then they split apart. These charts show how far. ## The gap in eight numbers North Korea South Korea **73.6** Life expectancy 2023 · years _+10.7_ **84.3** **$1,569** Income per person 2022 · $ _26×_ **$41,321** **1,023** Electricity per person 2024 · kWh _12×_ **12,092** **1.7%** Children who die before 5 2024 · % _6×_ **0.3%** **1,981** Food per person per day 2018 / 2023 · kcal _1.7×_ **3,430** **24** Mobile phones 2022 / 2024 · per 100 people _7.1×_ **173** **172** Height of men born 1996 · cm _+2.9_ **174.9** **0.08** Democracy score 2025 · 0 to 1 **0.82** ## Before the split, the north was the richer half Japan built its factories, mines and dams in the north, so in 1940 the northern half made about $2,624 per person and the south about $1,975\. That flipped fast after the war. By 2022 the South was at $41,321 and the North at $1,569, about 26 times less. Nobody has real numbers for North Korea between 1944 and 1989 (it publishes almost nothing), which is why its line has a hole. ### GDP per person Average yearly income per person, adjusted for prices and inflation (2011 international dollars). **Source:** [Bolt and van Zanden – Maddison Project Database 2023, via Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-maddison-project-database) (CC BY 4.0) · Data downloaded 2026-10-05, source updated 2024-04-26 [Share](https://x.com/intent/post?text=GDP%20per%20person&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsavenorthkorea.org%2Fdata%2Fgdp-per-capita) ## Neck and neck until the famine In 1990 a baby in the North could expect to live 70.5 years, in the South 71\. Basically the same. Then the Soviet Union collapsed, the aid stopped, floods hit, and the famine of the mid 1990s killed somewhere between several hundred thousand and a few million people. The UN estimate drops to 60.8 years in 1995\. Today it is 73.6 years in the North and 84.3 in the South, so people in the North die about 10.7 years earlier. (The flat stretch after 1995 is how the UN models the crisis years. Nobody knows the real year-by-year path.) ### Life expectancy How many years a baby born that year would live on average. **Source:** [Riley (2005); Zijdeman et al. (2015); HMD (2025); UN WPP (2024), via Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy) (CC BY 4.0) · Data downloaded 2026-10-05, source updated 2025-10-22 [Share](https://x.com/intent/post?text=Life%20expectancy&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsavenorthkorea.org%2Fdata%2Flife-expectancy) ## Children paid for the famine first In 1990 about 4.1% of children in the North died before turning five. By 1996 it was 10.6%, one in ten. It has come down a lot since then, to 1.7% in 2024\. That is still about 6 times the South's rate (0.3%). ### Children who die before age five Share of newborns who do not reach their fifth birthday. **Source:** [United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (2025), via Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality-igme) (CC BY 4.0) · Data downloaded 2026-10-05, source updated 2026-06-09 [Share](https://x.com/intent/post?text=Children%20who%20die%20before%20age%20five&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsavenorthkorea.org%2Fdata%2Fchild-mortality) ## The lights went out and never came back North Korea used more energy per person in 1980 (15,083 kWh) than it does now (7,301 kWh). It is one of very few countries that went backwards. The South went from 11,823 to 70,773 kWh over the same years. That is the photo above. About 61% of North Koreans have electricity at home, and even for them it is often a few hours a day. ### Energy use per person All energy used in a year (power, heat, transport), divided by the population. **Source:** [Energy Institute – Statistical Review of World Energy (2026) and other sources, via Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-energy-use) (CC BY 4.0) · Data downloaded 2026-10-05, source updated 2026-06-30 [Share](https://x.com/intent/post?text=Energy%20use%20per%20person&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsavenorthkorea.org%2Fdata%2Fenergy-per-person) ## The South grew taller Men born in 1930 were the same height on both sides: 164.4 cm in the North, 164.8 cm in the South. Men born in 1996 were 172 cm in the North and 174.9 cm in the South. Height mostly comes down to food and health in childhood. The same people drifting 2.9 cm apart in a few decades is a record of hunger. Women show the same gap (159 vs 162.3 cm). North Korea South Korea ## The South was a dictatorship too, then it changed People forget this, but South Korea was run by military strongmen until 1987\. Then mass protests forced free elections and its democracy score jumped from 0.31 to 0.62 in two years. North Korea's score has sat near zero for 80 years (0.08 in 2025, on a 0 to 1 scale). Same people, different system. That is probably the most important chart here. South Korea North Korea China 0 · Closed dictatorship 1 · Full democracy [Open the full chart ](https://savenorthkorea.org/data/democracy) ## People still leave, at great risk 32,548 North Koreans reached South Korea between 2002 and 2025, and 75% of them were women. The busiest year was 2009, with 2,914 arrivals. Arrivals fell after 2011, the year Kim Jong Un took power, and almost stopped when North Korea sealed its border for COVID in 2020 (63 people in 2021). In 2025, 224 people made it. ### North Koreans reaching South Korea People who escaped and arrived in South Korea each year, by sex. **Source:** [Ministry of Unification (South Korea), 북한이탈주민 주요 현황](https://www.data.go.kr/data/15106185/fileData.do) (KOGL Type 1 (public)) · Data downloaded 2026-10-05, source updated 2026-09-30 **Note:** Counted when people reach South Korea, which can be years after they left North Korea. 2002 onward; earlier years are only published as multi-year totals. **Recent years not yet in the official file:** [2025](https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/foreignaffairs/northkorea/20260120/224-n-korean-defectors-enter-s-korea-in-2025) [Share](https://x.com/intent/post?text=North%20Koreans%20reaching%20South%20Korea&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsavenorthkorea.org%2Fdata%2Fdefector-arrivals) ## More comparisons Hover or tap a chart to see the numbers, click a country to hide it. Every chart has a full page with a table and a CSV. ### Food per person per day Calories available per person per day. Around 2,100 kcal is the usual minimum. **Source:** [Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) and other sources, via Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-per-capita-caloric-supply) (CC BY 4.0) · Data downloaded 2026-10-05, source updated 2026-03-02 [Share](https://x.com/intent/post?text=Food%20per%20person%20per%20day&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsavenorthkorea.org%2Fdata%2Fcalories)[ Open full chart](https://savenorthkorea.org/data/calories) ### Access to electricity Share of people who have electricity at home. **Source:** [Data compiled from multiple sources by the World Bank, via Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-electricity) (CC BY 4.0) · Data downloaded 2026-10-05, source updated 2026-07-27 [Share](https://x.com/intent/post?text=Access%20to%20electricity&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsavenorthkorea.org%2Fdata%2Felectricity-access)[ Open full chart](https://savenorthkorea.org/data/electricity-access) ### Mobile phone subscriptions Subscriptions per 100 people. Above 100 means some people have more than one. **Source:** [International Telecommunication Union (ITU), via World Bank (2026), via Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/mobile-cellular-subscriptions-per-100-people) (CC BY 4.0) · Data downloaded 2026-10-05, source updated 2026-07-27 [Share](https://x.com/intent/post?text=Mobile%20phone%20subscriptions&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsavenorthkorea.org%2Fdata%2Fmobile-phones)[ Open full chart](https://savenorthkorea.org/data/mobile-phones) ### Children per woman Average number of children a woman has over her life, at that year’s rates. **Source:** [UN, World Population Prospects (2024), via Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/children-per-woman-un) (CC BY 4.0) · Data downloaded 2026-10-05, source updated 2024-07-12 [Share](https://x.com/intent/post?text=Children%20per%20woman&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsavenorthkorea.org%2Fdata%2Ffertility)[ Open full chart](https://savenorthkorea.org/data/fertility) ### Soldiers Active armed forces personnel. **Source:** [The Military Balance - International Institute for Strategic Studies, via World Bank (2026), via Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/armed-forces-personnel) (CC BY 4.0) · Data downloaded 2026-10-05, source updated 2026-07-27 [Share](https://x.com/intent/post?text=Soldiers&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsavenorthkorea.org%2Fdata%2Farmed-forces)[ Open full chart](https://savenorthkorea.org/data/armed-forces) ### CO₂ emissions per person Tonnes of carbon dioxide from fuel and industry, per person. A rough measure of how much industry runs. **Source:** [Global Carbon Budget (2025); Population based on various sources (2024), via Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co-emissions-per-capita) (CC BY 4.0) · Data downloaded 2026-10-05, source updated 2025-11-13 [Share](https://x.com/intent/post?text=CO%E2%82%82%20emissions%20per%20person&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsavenorthkorea.org%2Fdata%2Fco2-per-person)[ Open full chart](https://savenorthkorea.org/data/co2-per-person) ### Population People living in the country. **Source:** [HYDE (2023); Gapminder (2022); UN WPP (2024), via Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population) (CC BY 4.0) · Data downloaded 2026-10-05, source updated 2024-07-15 [Share](https://x.com/intent/post?text=Population&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsavenorthkorea.org%2Fdata%2Fpopulation)[ Open full chart](https://savenorthkorea.org/data/population) ### Average height of women Adult height by the year they were born. **Source:** [NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (2016), via Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/average-height-of-women) (CC BY 4.0) · Data downloaded 2026-10-05, source updated 2019-05-14 [Share](https://x.com/intent/post?text=Average%20height%20of%20women&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsavenorthkorea.org%2Fdata%2Fheight-women)[ Open full chart](https://savenorthkorea.org/data/height-women) ## How much can you trust North Korea numbers? Less than for almost any other country. North Korea stopped publishing most statistics decades ago, so most of these are estimates by outsiders (the UN, the Bank of Korea, FAO), built from satellite images, trade data, defector interviews and the two censuses the regime allowed (1993 and 2008). So read them as the best guess available, not as exact counts. Where an estimate is especially shaky we say so under the chart. Every chart links to its source. ## Quick answers How much richer is South Korea than North Korea? About 26 times per person. In 2022 GDP per person was about $41,321 in South Korea and $1,569 in North Korea (Maddison Project estimates, 2011 dollars). Do South Koreans live longer than North Koreans? Yes, about 10.7 years longer. UN estimates for 2023 are 84.3 years in South Korea and 73.6 in North Korea. In 1990 the two were almost equal, around 70 years. Were North and South Korea ever equal? Roughly, yes. In 1940 the industrial north was richer per person than the south, and in 1990 life expectancy was about the same in both. The big gaps opened after the 1990s famine and as the South industrialised and became a democracy. Are North Koreans shorter than South Koreans? On average, yes. Men born in 1930 in both Koreas were about the same height (164.4 cm vs 164.8 cm), but men born in 1996 average 172 cm in the North and 174.9 cm in the South, according to NCD-RisC estimates. Studies of defectors measured bigger gaps for children who grew up during the famine. ## Use the data Every number here is in our open dataset, updated weekly, with the original source on each series. Download it, check it, build on it. [ All charts and data](https://savenorthkorea.org/data)[Data on GitHub](https://github.com/Ahmet-Dedeler/free-north-korea/tree/main/data/series)[ Read next](https://savenorthkorea.org/learn/how-can-north-korea-be-freed)