This country comparison is a concise, tabular overview of numerous data from our respective country pages for North Korea and United States. There, we provide many explanations and details per country that go far beyond this comparison.
General information
| North Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Region: | East Asia | North America |
| Area: | 120,540 km² | 9,831,510 km² |
| National language: | Korean | English |
| Government form: | People's republic (communist one-party system) | Federal presidential republic |
| Independent since: | 1948 AD | 1776 AD |
| Capital: | Pyongyang | Washington, D.C. |
Population
Details for North Korea and the United States| North Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Population: | 25,972,000 | 331,894,000 |
| Inhabitants/km²: | 215.5 | 33.8 |
| Life expectancy males: | Ø 71 years | Ø 75 years |
| Life expectancy females: | Ø 76 years | Ø 80 years |
| Average age: | Ø 34.6 years | Ø 38.5 years |
| Birth rate: | 13.33 ‰ | 10.90 ‰ |
| Death rate: | 9.08 ‰ | 10.30 ‰ |
| Migrationrate: | -0.04 ‰ | 3.02 ‰ |
Economy
| North Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Currency: | North Korean won (1 KPW = 100 Chon) | US dollar (1 USD =100 Cents) |
| Unemployment rate: | 3.2 % | 5.4 % |
| Corruption index: | 83 (very bad) | 31 (moderate) |
| PRK: total | per 1000 inh. | USA: total | per 1000 inh. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exported goods: | 222 M US$ | 0.01 M US$ | 2,556,638 M US$ | 7.70 M US$ |
| Imported goods: | 2,320 M US$ | 0.09 M US$ | 3,401,688 M US$ | 10.25 M US$ |
Infrastructure
Details for North Korea and the United States| PRK: total | per 1000 inh. | USA: total | per 1000 inh. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roadways: | 25,554 km | 0.98 km | 6,586,610 km | 19.85 km |
| Railways: | 7,435 km | 0.29 km | 293,564 km | 0.88 km |
| Waterways: | 2,250 km | 0.09 km | 41,009 km | 0.12 km |
| Harbours: | 264 | 0.0102 | 3,627 | 0.0109 |
| Passenger airports: | 5 | 0.0002 | 436 | 0.0013 |
Energy balance
Details for North Korea and the United States| PRK: total | per 1000 inh. | USA: total | per 1000 inh. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy consumption: | 13.89 bn kWh | 534,808.59 kWh | 3.902 tn kWh | 11.76 m kWh |
| Energy production: | 16.57 bn kWh | 637,997.00 kWh | 4.095 tn kWh | 12.34 m kWh |
| Energy export: | 0.00 kWh | 0.00 kWh | 9.70 bn kWh | 29,211.16 kWh |
| Energy imports: | 0.00 kWh | 0.00 kWh | 72.72 bn kWh | 219,106.27 kWh |
| CO2 emissions: | 56.04 m t | 2,157.72 t | 4.82 bn t | 14,515.85 t |
Telecommunication
Details for North Korea and the United States| North Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| International dialing: | +850 | +1 |
| Internet domain: | .kp | .us |
| PRK total | PRK per 1000 inh. | USA total | USA per 1000 inh. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Landlines: | 1,180,000 | 45 | 101,526,000 | 306 |
| Mobile cellulars: | 6,000,000 | 231 | 351,477,000 | 1059 |
| Internet server: | 8 | 0 | 505,000,000 | 1522 |
Healthcare system
Details for North Korea and the United States| North Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Hospital beds per 1000 inh.: | 13.20 | 2.87 |
| Physicians per 1000 inh.: | 3.67 | 2.59 |
| Diabetes: | 6.4 % | 10.8 % |
| Tuberculosis: | 5.13 ‰ | 0.03 ‰ |
| Tuberculosis cure rate: | 87.0 % | 74.0 % |
| Smokers: | 17.4 % | 23.0 % |
Climate
We also provide a more detailed climate comparison of both countries.The data for each country can be found here: North Korea and United States
| North Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Daytime temperatures: | 15.3 °C | 18.9 °C |
| Nighttime temperatures: | 5.5 °C | 7.3 °C |
| Rel. humidity: | 71 % | 67 % |
| Rain days: | 6.0 | 7.1 |
| Sunshine hours per day: | 5.7 | 7.2 |
Native languages
| North Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Korean: | 99.9 % | 0.3 % |
| English: | n/a | 82.1 % |
| Spanish: | n/a | 10.7 % |
| Chinese: | 0.1 % | 0.9 % |
| French: | n/a | 0.7 % |
| German: | n/a | 0.6 % |
| Italian: | n/a | 0.6 % |
| Tagalog: | n/a | 0.4 % |
| Polish: | n/a | 0.3 % |
| Vietnamese: | n/a | 0.2 % |
| Japanese: | n/a | 0.2 % |
| Portuguese: | n/a | 0.2 % |
| Russian: | n/a | 0.2 % |
| Eskimo: | n/a | 0.0 % |
| other: | 0.0 % | 2.6 % |
Religions
| North Korea | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Christianity: | 1.7 % | 78.5 % |
| Chuch'e: | 64.3 % | n/a |
| Shamanism: | 16.0 % | n/a |
| Cheondogyo: | 13.5 % | n/a |
| Buddhism: | 4.5 % | 0.7 % |
| Jewry: | n/a | 1.8 % |
| Sikhism: | n/a | 1.6 % |
| Islam: | n/a | 1.1 % |
| Hinduism: | n/a | 1.0 % |
| other: | 0.0 % | 15.3 % |