North Korea vs South Korea: Economic Indicators Comparison

South Korea with a GDP of $1.6T ranked the 12th largest economy in the world, while North Korea ranked 89th with $43.3B. By GDP 5-years average growth and GDP per capita, South Korea and North Korea ranked 93rd vs 172nd and 33rd vs 154th, respectively.

Gross Domestic Product & Income

Stat	North Korea	South Korea
GDP	$43.3B	$1.6T
GDP growth, 1 year	-4.1%	2.7%
GDP growth, 5-years average	-0.8%	3%
Population	25.5M	51.5M
GDP per capita	$1.7k	$31k
GDP per capita growth	N/A	2.33%
Purchasing Power Parity conversion factor	N/A	860.51
Price level ratio of PPP conversion factor GDP to market exchange rate	N/A	0.78
GDP per capita, PPP adjusted	$1.7k	$41k
GNI, Atlas method	N/A	$1.6T
GNI per capita	N/A	$31k
GNI, PPP adjusted	N/A	$2.1T
GNI per capita, PPP adjusted	N/A	$40k

Financial system and Human development

Stat	North Korea	South Korea
Income Tax Rate	N/A	42%
Corporate Tax Rate	N/A	25%
Inflation, consumer prices	N/A	1.5%
Inflation, GDP deflator	N/A	0.3%
Unemployment	3.3%	3.8%
Economic Freedom Index	4.2	74
Personal Freedom Index	1.4	8.84
Human Freedom Index	1.4	8.15
Property Rights Index	20.1	82.5
Judical Effectiveness Index	5	61
Business Freedom Index	5	90.5
Fiscal Health Index	0	96.7
Labor Freedom Index	5	56.2
Investment Freedom Index	0	70
Financial Freedom Index	0	70
Trade Freedom Index	0	80
Monetary Freedom Index	0	82.1
Government Spending Index	0	67.7
Tax Burden Index	0	63.9
Government Integrity Index	15.1	67.5
Corruption Perceptions Index	14	57
Life expectancy at birth, years	71.9	82.6
Suicide mortality rate, per 100,000 people	11.2	26.9
Mortality caused by road traffic injury, per 100,000 people	20.8	9.8
Intentional homicides, per 100,000 people	4.4	0.6
International tourism, number of arrivals	N/A	15.3M

Government debt & reserves

Stat	North Korea	South Korea
Central government debt, % of GDP	N/A	40.7%
External debt stocks, % of GNI	N/A	N/A
External debt stocks	N/A	N/A
Short-term debt, % of total reserves	N/A	N/A
Total debt service, % of exports and primary income	N/A	N/A
Adjusted net savings including particulate emission damage, % of GNI	N/A	20.1%
Gross savings, % of GDP	N/A	34.7%
Gross capital formation, % of GDP	N/A	30.2%
Total reserves including gold	N/A	$403.1B
Foreign direct investment net inflows	$52M	$14.5B

Exports, imports and economic structure

Stat	North Korea	South Korea
Exports of goods and services, % of GDP	N/A	44%
Imports of goods and services, % of GDP	N/A	39%
Current account balance (balance of payments)	N/A	$76.4B
Revenue excluding grants, % of GDP	N/A	27.8%
Grants excluding technical cooperation, BoP	$118.5M	$6.7M
Personal remittances received	N/A	$7.1B
Industry including construction value added, % of GDP	N/A	35.1%
Agriculture, forestry and fishing value added, % of GDP	N/A	2%
Charges for the use of intellectual property, payments BoP	N/A	$9.9B
Charges for the use of intellectual property, receipts BoP	N/A	$7.8B
Expense, % of GDP	N/A	25.4%
Government Expenditure, % of GDP	N/A	32.8%