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Japan vs. South Korea

How Japan and South Korea compare on income per person, population, life expectancy, internet use, electricity, unemployment, inflation, carbon emissions, health spending and college enrollment, each next to the world figure and linked to its chart, where you'll find its source, its date and every country's numbers.

The biggest differences

  • The population is 2.4 times as large in Japan (123M people) as in South Korea (51.7M).
  • College enrollment is 39.4 percentage points higher in South Korea (102.8%) than in Japan (63.4%).
  • Carbon dioxide emitted per person is 46% higher in South Korea (11.4 tonnes) than in Japan (7.8).

The two are about the same on life expectancy at birth, the share of people with electricity, the unemployment rate, and inflation.

Side by side

Figures are from the World Bank's World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), for the newest year most countries have reported; many are estimates, and they are revised as new data comes in. GDP per person is in US dollars at each year's exchange rates, not adjusted for differences in prices, and so is health spending. Two figures are called about the same when GDP, population, emissions or health spending differ by less than 5%, life expectancy by less than a year, unemployment or inflation by less than 1 percentage point, or another share by less than 2 percentage points.

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