Population: North Korea’s population was estimated in July 2004 at 22,697,553. The annual population growth rate is 0.9 percent. United Nations (UN) estimates for 2002 indicate that North Korea’s population density stood at 183.6 persons per square kilometer; 40 percent of the population lived in rural and 60 percent in urban areas.

Demography: According to estimates of North Korea’s age structure, 24.6 percent of inhabitants are between zero and 14 years of age, 67.8 percent are between 15 and 64 years of age, and 7.6 percent are 65 and older. Estimates made in 2004 indicate a birthrate of nearly 16.8 births per 1,000 population and a death rate of just over 6.9 deaths per 1,000. In 2004 life expectancy was estimated at 73.9 years for women and 68.4 for men, or nearly 71.1 years total. Other projections are much lower for both women and men. Life expectancy is not expected to improve as the first decade of the twenty-first century proceeds. The infant mortality rate was estimated at 24.8 per 1,000 live births in 2004. The total fertility rate for 2004 has been estimated at 2.2 children per woman. There is no legal migration from North Korea, and after the Korean War (1950–53) only 5,000 North Koreans successfully reached South Korea until the turn of the century. However, in 2003 and 2004 unprecedented numbers of North Koreans—estimates range between 140,000 and 300,000—fled to China with hopes of reaching South Korea. According to the U.S. Department of State, only 1,894 reached South Korea during 2004.

Ethnic Groups: The vast majority of the racially homogeneous population are ethnic Koreans. North Korea also has a few Chinese- and Japanese-speaking communities.

Language: Korean is the national language. Dialects of Korean, some of which are not mutually intelligible, are spoken throughout the country and generally coincide with provincial boundaries. The standard national pronunciation is based on the P’y4ngyang dialect. The written language employs the phonetic-based Chos4n’gul alphabet.

Religion: Traditionally, Koreans have practiced Buddhism and observed the tenets of Confucianism. Besides a small number of practicing Buddhists (about 10,000, under the auspices of the official Korean Buddhist Federation), the population also includes some Christians (about 10,000 Protestants and 4,000 Roman Catholics, under the auspices of the Korean Christian Federation) and an indeterminate number of native Ch’4ndogyo (Heavenly Way) adherents. However, religious activities are almost nonexistent. North Korea has 300 Buddhist temples, but they are considered cultural relics rather than active places of worship. Several schools for religious education exist, including three-year religious colleges for training Protestant and Buddhist clergy. In 1989 Kim Il Sung University established a religious studies program, but its graduates usually go on to work in the foreign trade sector. Although the constitution provides for freedom of religious belief, in practice the government severely discourages organized religious activity except as supervised by the aforementioned officially recognized groups. Constitutional changes made in 1992 allow authorized religious gatherings and the construction of buildings for religious use and deleted a clause about freedom of anti-religious propaganda. The constitution also stipulates that religion “should not be used for purposes of dragging in foreign powers or endangering public security.”

Education and Literacy: Education in North Korea is free, compulsory, and universal for 11 years, from ages four to 15, in state-run schools. The national literacy rate for citizens 15 years of age and older is 99 percent. According to North Korean-supplied figures provided in 2000, there were 1.5 million children in 27,017 nursery schools, 748,416 children in 14,167 kindergartens, 1.6 million students in 4,886 four-year primary schools, and 2.1 million students in 4,772 six-year secondary schools. Nearly 1.9 million students attended more than 300 colleges and universities. Data on teachers are much older. In 1988 the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported 35,000 pre-primary, 59,000 primary, 111,000 secondary, 23,000 college and university, and 4,000 other postsecondary teachers in North Korea.

Health: North Korea has a national medical service and health insurance system. As of 2000, 99 percent of the population had access to sanitation, and 100 percent had access to water, but water was not always potable. Medical treatment is free. In the past, North Korea reportedly had one doctor for every 700 inhabitants and one hospital bed for every 350 patients. No cases of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) had been reported as of 2004. Health expenditures in 2001 represented 2.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and 73 percent of health expenditures were made in the public sector. However, it is estimated that between 500,000 and 3 million people died from famine in the 1990s, and a 1998 United Nations (UN) World Food Program report revealed that 60 percent of children suffered from malnutrition, and 16 percent were acutely malnourished. UN statistics for the period 1999–2001 reveal that North Korea’s daily per capita food supply was one of the lowest in Asia, exceeding only that of Cambodia, Laos, and Tajikistan, and one of the lowest worldwide. Because of continuing economic problems, food shortages and chronic malnutrition prevail in the 2000s.

Welfare: Housing and food rations traditionally have been heavily subsidized, and health care has been offered for free. However, the party, state, and military elites have had much better care than the average citizen, and great inequalities exist among the various social classes. Natural disasters in the 1990s led to a breakdown in food rationing and a rising inequality of services to the extent that upward of 300,000 North Koreans may have succeeded in fleeing to China in search of food.