The demographics of North Korea are difficult to assess due to the limited amount of data available from the country. The historical data is derived from the work done by United States scholar Nicholas Eberstadt and demographer Judith Banister in 1992. A scholar is either a student or someone who has achieved a mastery of some academic discipline, perhaps receiving financial support through a scholarship. ... Map of countries by population Population growth showing projections for later this century Demography is the scientific study of human population dynamics. ...

Population history

The Korean Peninsula was first populated by people of the Altaic linguistic branch who migrated from the northwestern regions of Asia. The Korean Peninsula a. ... Altaic is a putative language family which would include 60 languages spoken by about 250 million people, mostly in and around central Asia. ...

Although a variety of different Asian peoples had migrated to the Korean Peninsula in past centuries, very few remained permanently, so by 1990 both South Korea and North Korea were among the world's most ethnically homogeneous nations. There have been no indigenous minorities in North Korea since the assimilation of the Jurchen - or Manchu - people that took place centuries ago in newly conquered territories close to Manchuria. Today, there is a small Chinese community (about 45,000) and some 1,800 Japanese wives who accompanied the roughly 93,000 Koreans returning to the North from Japan during 1959-62. The Jurchens (Traditional Chinese: 女眞; Simplified Chinese: 女真; pinyin: nǚzhēn) were a Tungus people who inhabited parts of Manchuria and northern Korea until the 17th century, when they became the Manchus. ... The Manchu (Manchu: Manju; Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: , Mongolian: Манж) are a Tungusic people who originated in Manchuria (todays Northeast China). ... This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ...

In the 1960, North Korea began making efforts to include foreign residents and students. From the 1960s throughout the 1980s, East European, Somalian, Angolan, and Vietnamese students have attended and graduated from Kim Il-sung University. Today, North Korea still has Russian, other East European, and Vietnamese residents, living mainly in and around Pyongyang. Eastern Europe is, by convention, a region defined geographically as that part of Europe covering the eastern part of the continent. ... Somalia or Somolia (Somali: Soomaaliya; Arabic: الصومال, As-Sumal), formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a coastal nation in East Africa. ... Kim Il-sung University, founded in 1946, is the first university built in North Korea. ...

Korean identity

Like their Japanese neighbors, Koreans tend to equate nationality or citizenship with membership in a single, homogeneous ethnic group. A common language and culture are also important elements in Korean identity. The idea of multiracial or multiethnic nations, like India or the United States, strikes many Koreans as odd or even contradictory. Consciousness of homogeneity is a major reason why Koreans on both sides of the DMZ viewed their country's division as an unnatural and unnecessary tragedy. In military terms, a demilitarized zone (DMZ) is an area, usually the frontier or boundary between two or more groups, where military activity is not permitted, usually by treaty or other agreement. ...

Against the background of ethnic homogeneity, significant regional differences exist. However, regional stereotypes, like regional dialects, have been breaking down under the influence of centralized education, nationwide media, and the several decades of population movement since the Korean War. The Korean language is spoken in a number of different dialects around the Korean peninsula. ... Combatants United Nations:  Republic of Korea,  Australia,  Belgium,  Luxembourg,  Canada,  Colombia,  Ethiopia,  France,  Greece,  Luxembourg,  Netherlands,  New Zealand,  Philippines,  South Africa,  Thailand,  Turkey,  United Kingdom,  United States Medical staff:  Denmark,  Australia,  Italy,  Norway,  Sweden Communist states:  Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,  Peoples Republic of China,  Soviet Union Commanders...

History of reporting demographics

Until the release of official data in 1989, the 1963 edition of the North Korea Central Yearbook was the last official publication to disclose population figures until 1989. After 1963 demographers used varying methods to estimate the population. They either totaled the number of delegates elected to the Supreme People's Assembly (each delegate representing 50,000 people before 1962 and 30,000 people afterward) or relied on official statements that a certain number of persons, or percentage of the population, was engaged in a particular activity. Thus, on the basis of remarks made by President Kim Il Sung in 1977 concerning school attendance, the population that year was calculated at 17.2 million persons. During the 1980s, health statistics, including life expectancy and causes of mortality, were gradually made available to the outside world. Kim Il-sung (15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was the leader of North Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death, when he was succeeded by his son Kim Jong-il. ...

In 1989 the Central Statistics Bureau released demographic data to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) in order to secure the UNFPA's assistance in holding North Korea's first nationwide census since the establishment of the DPRK in 1948. Although the figures given to the United Nations (UN) might have been purposely distorted, it appears that in line with other attempts to open itself to the outside world, the North Korean regime has also opened somewhat in the demographic realm. Although the country lacks trained demographers, accurate data on household registration, migration, and births and deaths are available to North Korean authorities. According to the United States scholar Nicholas Eberstadt and demographer Judith Banister, vital statistics and personal information on residents are kept by agencies on the ri, or ni (리, 里: village, the local administrative unit) level in rural areas and the dong (동, 洞: district or block) level in urban areas. Administrative divisions of North Korea As of 2004, North Korea consisted of two directly-governed cities (Chikalshi; 직할시;直轄市), three special administrative regions with various designations, and nine provinces (Do, singular and plural; 도; 道). These 14 regions are, in turn, divided into a Special...

Size and growth rate

In their 1992 monograph, The Population of North Korea, Eberstadt and Banister use the data given to the UNFPA and also make their own assessments. They place the total population at 21.4 million persons in mid-1990, consisting of 10.6 million males and 10.8 million females. This figure is close to an estimate of 21.9 million persons for mid-1988 cited in the 1990 edition of the Demographic Yearbook published by the UN. Korean Review, a book by Pan Hwan Ju published by the P'yongyang Foreign Languages Press in 1987, gives a figure of 19.1 million persons for 1986. A monograph is a scholarly book or a treatise on a single subject or a group of related subjects. ...

Male-female ratio

The figures disclosed by the government reveal an unusually low proportion of males to females: in 1980 and 1987, the male-to-female ratios were 86.2 to 100, and 84.2 to 100, respectively. Low male-to-female ratios are usually the result of a war, but these figures were lower than the sex ratio of 88.3 males per 100 females recorded for 1953, the last year of the Korean War. The male-to-female ratio would be expected to rise to a normal level with the passage of years, as happened between 1953 and 1970, when the figure was 95.1 males per 100 females. After 1970, however, the ratio declined. Eberstadt and Banister suggest that before 1970 male and female population figures included the whole population, yielding ratios in the ninetieth percentile, but that after that time the male military population was excluded from population figures. Based on the figures provided by the Central Statistics Bureau, Eberstadt and Banister estimate that the actual size of the "hidden" male North Korean military had reached 1.2 million by 1986 and that the actual male-to-female ratio was 97.1 males to 100 females in 1990. If their estimates are correct, 6.1 percent of North Korea's total population was in the military, numerically the world's fifth largest military force, in the late 1980s (fourth largest as of 2006). It has been suggested that List of countries by size of armed forces be merged into this article or section. ...

Growth rate

The annual population growth rate in 1960 was 2.7 percent, rising to a high of 3.6 percent in 1970, but falling to 1.9 percent in 1975. This fall reflected a dramatic decline in the fertility rate: the average number of children born to women decreased from 6.5 in 1966 to 2.5 in 1988. Assuming the data are reliable, reasons for falling growth rates and fertility rates probably include late marriage, urbanization, limited housing space, and the expectation that women would participate equally in terms of work hours in the labor force. The experience of other socialist countries suggests that widespread labor force participation by women often goes hand-in-hand with more traditional role expectations; in other words, they are still responsible for housework and childrearing. The high percentage of males aged seventeen to twenty-six may also have contributed to the low fertility rate. According to Eberstadt and Banister's data, the annual population growth rate in 1991 was 1.9 percent. Fertility is a measure of reproduction: the number of children born per couple, person or population. ... Human population increase from 10,000 BC – 2000 AD. Population growth is change in population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals in a population per unit time. ...

Promoting population growth

The North Korean government seems to perceive its population as too small in relation to that of South Korea. In its public pronouncements, P'yongyang has called for accelerated population growth and encouraged large families. According to one Korean American scholar who visited North Korea in the early 1980s, the country has no birth control policies; parents are encouraged to have as many as six children. The state provides t'agaso (nurseries) in order to lessen the burden of childrearing for parents and offers a seventy-seven-day paid leave after childbirth. Eberstadt and Banister suggest, however, that authorities at the local level make contraceptive information readily available to parents and that intrauterine devices are the most commonly adopted birth control method. An interview with a former North Korean resident in the early 1990s revealed that such devices are distributed free at clinics. A Korean American is a person of Korean ancestry who was either born in or is an immigrant to the United States. ...

Population structure and projections

Demographers determine the age structure of a given population by dividing it into five-year age-groups and arranging them chronologically in a pyramidlike structure that "bulges" or recedes in relation to the number of persons in a given age cohort. Many poor, developing countries have a broad base and steadily tapering higher levels, which reflects a large number of births and young children but much smaller age cohorts in later years as a result of relatively short life expectancies. North Korea does not entirely fit this pattern; data reveal a "bulge" in the lower ranges of adulthood. In 1991 life expectancy at birth was approximately sixty-six years for males, almost seventy-three for females. It has been suggested that Underdevelopment be merged into this article or section. ... A cohort was a sub-division of the Roman infantry, originally of a Roman legion, consisting of 480 men, itself divided in 6 centurias commanded each by a centurion. ...

It is likely that annual population growth rates will increase in the future, as will as difficulties in employing the many young men and women entering the labor force in a socialist economy already suffering from stagnant growth. Eberstadt and Banister estimate that the population will increase to 25.5 million by the end of the century and to 28.5 million in 2010. They project that the population will stabilize (that is, cease to grow) at 34 million persons in 2045 and will then experience a gradual decline. By comparison, South Korea's population is expected to stabilize at 52.6 million people in 2023.

Settlement patterns and urbanization

North Korea's population is concentrated in the plains and lowlands. The least populated regions are the mountainous Chagang and Yanggang provinces adjacent to the Chinese border. The largest concentrations of population are in North P'yŏngan and South P'yŏngan provinces, in the municipal district of P'yongyang, and in South Hamgyŏng Province, which includes the Hamhŭng-Hŭngnam urban area. Eberstadt and Banister calculate the average population density at 167 persons per square kilometer, ranging from 1,178 persons per square kilometer in P'yongyang Municipality to 44 persons per square kilometer in Yanggang Province. By contrast, South Korea had an average population density of 425 persons per square kilometer in 1989. Chagang (Chagang-do) is a province in North Korea. ... Ryanggang (Ryanggang-do) is a province in North Korea. ... North Pyŏngan (Pyŏngan-pukto) is a province of North Korea. ... South Pyŏngan (Pyŏngan-namdo) is a province of North Korea. ... South Hamgyŏng (Hamgyŏng-namdo) is a province of North Korea. ... HamhÅ­ng (HamhÅ­ng-si) is North Koreas second largest city, and the capital of South Hamgyŏng Province. ...

Like South Korea, North Korea has experienced significant urban migration since the end of the Korean War. Official statistics reveal that 59.6 percent of the total population was classified as urban in 1987. This figures compares with only 17.7 percent in 1953. It is not entirely clear, however, what standards are used to define urban populations. Eberstadt and Banister suggest that although South Korean statisticians do not classify settlements of under 50,000 as urban, their North Korean counterparts include settlements as small as 20,000 in this category. And, in North Korea, people who engage in agricultural pursuits inside municipalities sometimes are not counted as urban.

Urbanization in North Korea seems to have proceeded most rapidly between 1953 and 1960, when the urban population grew between 12 and 20 percent annually. Subsequently, the increase slowed to about 6 percent annually in the 1960s and between 1 and 3 percent from 1970 to 1987.

In 1987 North Korea's largest cities were P'yongyang, with approximately 2.3 million inhabitants; Hamhŭng, 701,000; Ch'ŏngjin, 520,000; Namp'o, 370,000; Sunch'ŏn, 356,000; and Sinŭiju, 289,000. In 1987 the total national population living in P'yongyang was 11.5 percent. The government also restricts and monitors migration to cities and ensures a relatively balanced distribution of population in provincial centers in relation to P'yongyang. Not to be confused with PyeongChang. ... HamhÅ­ng (HamhÅ­ng-si) is North Koreas second largest city, and the capital of South Hamgyŏng Province. ... Nampo (North Korean official spelling: Nampho) is a city and seaport in South Pyŏngan Province, North Korea. ... Suncheon or Sunchon (순천시) is the name of two Korean cities: Sunchon, North Korea Suncheon, South Korea Category: ... SinÅ­iju (SinÅ­iju-si) is a city in North Korea, on the border with China and is the capital of North Pyŏngan Province. ...

Koreans living overseas

Large-scale emigration from Korea began around 1904 and continued until the end of World War II. During the Japanese colonial occupation (1910–45), many Koreans emigrated to Manchuria (China's three northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning), other parts of China, the Soviet Union, Hawaii, and the continental United States. People from Korea's northern provinces went mainly to Manchuria, China, and Siberia; many from the southern provinces went to Japan. Most émigrés left for economic reasons because employment opportunities were scarce; many Korean farmers had lost their land after the Japanese colonial government introduced a system of private land tenure, imposed higher land taxes, and promoted the growth of an absentee landlord class charging exorbitant rents. Flag of the Japanese Resident General of Korea Anthem Kimi ga Yoa Korea under Japanese Occupation Capital Keijo Language(s) Korean, Japanese Religion Shintoisma Government Constitutional monarchy Emperor of Japan  - 1910–1912 Emperor Meiji  - 1912–1925 Emperor Taisho  - 1925–1945 Emperor Showa Governor-General of Korea  - 1910–1916 Masatake Terauchi... Official language(s) English, Hawaiian Capital Honolulu Largest city Honolulu Area  Ranked 43rd  - Total 10,931 sq mi (29,311 km²)  - Width n/a miles (n/a km)  - Length 1,522 miles (2,450 km)  - % water 41. ... The continental United States is a term referring to the United States situated on the North American continent. ... It has been suggested that Western Siberia be merged into this article or section. ...

In the 1980s, more than 4 million ethnic Koreans lived outside the peninsula. The largest group, about 1.7 million people, lived in China (see Koreans in China); most had assumed Chinese citizenship. Approximately 1 million Koreans, almost exclusively from South Korea, lived in North America (see Korean Americans). About 389,000 ethnic Koreans resided in the former Soviet Union (see Koryosaram and Sakhalin Koreans). One observer noted that Koreans have been so successful in running collective farms in Soviet Central Asia that being Korean is often associated by other citizens there with being rich, and as a result there is growing antagonism against Koreans. Smaller groups of Koreans are found in Central America and South America (85,000), the Middle East (62,000), Europe (40,000), Asia (27,000), and Africa (25,000). Ethnic Koreans in China, also referred to as Chaoxianzu, are citizens of the Peoples Republic of China who are ethnically Korean. ... A Korean American is a person of Korean ancestry who was either born in or is an immigrant to the United States. ... Languages Russian, Koryo-mar Religions Orthodox Christianity, Protestantism, Buddhism, others[2] Related ethnic groups Koreans, Sakhalin Koreans Koryo-saram (Russian: Корё сарам; Koryo-mar: 고려사람) is the name which ethnic Koreans in the Post-Soviet states use to refer to themselves. ... Sakhalin Koreans trace their roots back to immigrants from Gyeongsang and Jeolla provinces in the late 1930s and early 1940s. ...

Many of Japan's approximately 680,000 Koreans have belowaverage standards of living. This situation is partly because of discrimination by the Japanese. Many resident Koreans, loyal to North Korea, remain separate from, and often hostile to, the Japanese social mainstream. The pro-North Korean Chongryon (General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, known as Chosen soren or Chosoren in Japanese) initially was more successful than the pro-South Korean Mindan (Association for Korean Residents in Japan) in attracting adherents among residents in Japan. The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chae Ilbon Chosŏnin Chongryŏnhaphoe in Korean or Zai-Nihon Chōsenjin Sōrengōkai in Japanese), abbreviated to Chongryon (Korean: 총련, Hanja: 總聯) or Chōsen Sōren (Japanese: 朝鮮総連), is one of two main organisations for Zainichi (or Jaeil) Koreans (long... Mindan, or the Korean Residents Union in Japan(Korean: 재일본대한민국민단, Hanja: 在日本大韓民國民團), is the name of an organization for South Koreans living in Japan, which has ties to South Korea. ...

Between 1959 and 1982, Chongryon encouraged the repatriation of Korean residents in Japan to North Korea. More than 93,000 Koreans left Japan, the majority (80,000 persons) in 1960 and 1961. Thereafter, the number of repatriates declined, apparently because of reports of hardships suffered by their compatriots. Approximately 6,637 Japanese wives accompanied their husbands to North Korea, of whom about 1,828 retained Japanese citizenship in the early 1990s. P'yongyang had originally promised that the wives could return home every two or three years to visit their relatives. In fact, however, they are not allowed to do so, and few have had contact with their families in Japan. In normalization talks between North Korean and Japanese officials in the early 1990s, the latter urged unsuccessfully that the wives be allowed to make home visits. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Statistics

Population: 23,113,019

Age structure:
0–14 years: 26% (male 2,843,250; female 2,705,206)
15–64 years: 68% (male 7,223,364; female 7,502,094)
65 years and over: 6% (male 448,242; female 965,394)

Population growth rate: 1.35%

Birth rate: 20.43 births/1,000 population

Death rate: 6.88 deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15–64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.46 male(s)/female
total population: 0.94 male(s)/female

Infant mortality rate: 24.29 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 70.74 years (
male: 67.76 years
female: 73.86 years

Total fertility rate: 2.3 children born/woman

Nationality:
noun: Korean(s)
adjective: Korean

Ethnic groups: racially homogeneous: Koreans; small Chinese community, a few ethnic Japanese and ethnic Vietnamese. The term Ethnic Japanese, or Nikkei (日系), usually refers to people who live outside Japan, who either emigrated from Japan or are descendants of a person who emigrated from Japan. ... Ethnic Vietnamese may mean: Việt Kiều, referring to people of Vietnamese descent not living in Vietnam Vietnamese people, referring to people of Vietnamese descent without restriction Category: ...

Religion: traditionally Korean shamanist, Buddhist(54%) and Confucianist, some Christian and syncretic Chondogyo (Religion of the Heavenly Way)
There are a number of shamanistic practices that are developed in Korea, where the role of a shaman is most frequently taken by women. ... Cheondogyo is a 20th century Korean religious movement, based on the 19th century Donghak movement founded by Choe Je-u. ...

Languages: Korean

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write Korean
total population: 99%
male: 99%
female: 99% World literacy rates by country The traditional definition of literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write, or the ability to use language to read, write, listen, and speak. ...

• Figures from CIA World Factbook as of 2006

World Factbook 2004 cover The World Factbook is an annual publication by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States with basic almanac-style information about the various countries of the world. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...

References

• This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain.
• This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.

The Country Studies are works published by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress ( USA), freely available for use by researchers. ... The U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1789 by a constitutional convention, sets down the basic framework of American government in its seven articles. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The World Factbook 2007 (government edtion) cover. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

See also

• Demographics of South Korea
• North Korea
• Koreans
• List of Korea-related topics