North Korea population

North Korea had the most working-age people it is ever expected to have in 2021: 18,273,600 people aged 15–64, against 18,226,100 in 2023.

aged 15–64   children under 15   aged 65 and over

How to read this: take 100 people of working age — the orange row — and the two rows under it are the children (teal) and the people of 65 and over (violet) who lived alongside them in 2023.

Fewer than 50 dependants live alongside every 100 people aged 15–64 in 45 years: 1986–2030.

fewer than 50 dependants per 100   the same, projected   50 or more

How to read this: 1950 on the left, 2100 on the right; coloured in the years with fewer than 50 dependants per 100 working-age people, grey in the rest, hatched where that is a projection.

How every country compares

In 2020–2025 North Korea loses 2,048 people a year: everyone who arrives, minus everyone who leaves. The age at which that happens most is 20–24, at 1,288 a year more leaving than arriving.

more arrive than leave   more leave than arrive

How to read this: age runs left to right, babies to 100. A blue square above the line means arrivals outnumber departures at that age, an orange square below it means the opposite. The figures are the UN's projection for 2020–2025; nobody recorded migration by age before 2020.

In the years that were counted, 1950–2023, the most it gained in one year was 0 (1958) and the most it lost was 191,305 (1950).

In 2024, 50,439 people living in North Korea had been born in another country, fewer than 1 of every 100 people there, against fewer than 1 in 1990.

How migration works everywhere

Of every 100 babies born in North Korea in 2023, 96 a mother aged 20 to 34 and 4 a mother aged 35 or older. In 1950 it was 12 under 20 and 13 aged 35 or older.

The mother's age: under 20 20 to 34 35 or older projected

How to read this: one block a year, 100 squares in each, a square for every hundredth baby. The colour is the mother's age group, and the three numbers underneath are those groups in order, youngest first.

Babies born, 2023

342,038

Average age when women have a baby

28.8 years

29.0 in 1950

Babies a year per 1,000 girls aged 15–19

fewer than 1

78 in 1950

UNHCR publishes no refugees, asylum-seekers or displaced people in or from North Korea at the end of 2025.

An empty row is not the same as a zero. These figures cover the people one agency works with, so a country it has no operation in has nothing to report here.

In 2025, 11 people from North Korea asked for asylum in another country. Who asks for asylum, and who is given it

How the world's displacement is counted

Of every 100 people in North Korea in 2025, 59 lived in a city, 27 in a town or suburb and 14 in the countryside.

How to read this: everyone here, shrunk to 100 squares, with the colour saying whether that hundredth person lives in a city, a town or the countryside. Every country is measured by the same rule.

How the world's people live

Almost every adult in North Korea went to school: of every 100 in 2020, 99 finished upper secondary or went further.

Its people aged 15 to 64 were most numerous in 2020, the first year counted, and are never as many again in the middle projection; nor are the ones who finished upper secondary.

How to read this: 100 squares, one for every hundredth adult aged 25 or over, from least schooling on the left to most on the right. Counted by the Wittgenstein Centre for 2020.

How far the world's people went in school

North Korea had 104 cities in 2025, home to 15.7 million people. The largest, Pyongyang, holds 11 of every 100 people in North Korea.

1. Pyongyang2,901,588
2. Chŏngjin690,409
3. Hamhung412,277
4. Sariwon404,672
5. Wonsan373,596
6. Jakdo-dong363,071
7. Pyŏngsŏng340,370
8. Kanggye310,432
9. Kaesong285,008
10. Songnim280,489

How to read this: one bar for each of the 10 largest cities, 2025, all on the same scale. "City" here means the built-up area the UN measures, not the boundary the city draws itself.

All the world's cities