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South Korea vs. North Korea

How South Korea and North 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

  • Carbon dioxide emitted per person is 4.6 times as high in South Korea (11.4 tonnes) as in North Korea (2.5).
  • The population is 95% larger in South Korea (51.7M people) than in North Korea (26.6M).
  • The share of people with electricity is 38.6 percentage points higher in South Korea (100%) than in North Korea (61.4%).

The two are about the same on the unemployment rate.

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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