Socio-Economic, Demographic and Health Survey Published

The CBS conducted the Survey with technical and financial support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), to contribute to the availability of up-to-date, accurate and credible data. This data is crucial for the government and the international community working in DPRK to ensure an efficient, targeted, and rights-based response to humanitarian crises among agencies.

Among the key findings from the SDHS are the following:

• The population of DPRK is estimated at 24.2 million in 2014 (for population in private households and civil institutional living quarters only). This is a slight increase from the population of 23.3 million that were counted in the 2008 population and housing census, representing an annual growth rate of 0.6 percent.

• Life expectancy at birth for females is 75.6 years, while that of males is 68.2 years. This represents a difference of close to 7 years between females and males.

• There are 216 persons per square kilometer in DPRK, a slight increase from 208 persons per square kilometer in 2008.

The average number of children per woman (aged 15-49) in 2014 was 1.89. This reflects a declining trend in fertility from 2.2 in the 1993 Census and 2.01 in the 2008 Census.

The Survey further provides data on housing characteristics, social and economic characteristics of the population, fertility, family planning, reproductive health, mortality, and population ageing.

The SDHS was conducted and analyzed using internationally acceptable standards and techniques, and provides credible information on the social, economic and demographic characteristics of the people of the DPRK. The Survey is based on a nationally representative sample of 13,250 households.

If you have any technical questions on the SDHS report, please feel free to contact UNFPA (Mr. Kundur Sathyanarayana, Ph.D. Email km@unfpa.org).