Sun 21 Feb 2010
DPRK 2008 (Rough) Standard of Living Indicator across Provinces: A “Fun” Guide
Posted by Oikono under North-South Korea
Figure 2: Standard of Living Indicators for Pyongyang, DPRK Average and South Hwanghae
Using the recently released DPRK 2008 census figures, I have constructed a “rough” guide to the different living standards in different provinces using some figures embedded in the census. Feel free to take a look and provide comments.
Highlights: Figure 2 provides a clear picture of the large gap between Pyongyang and the rest of the DPRK in terms of access to “high quality” public infrastructure. Using differences in access to such infrastructure as reported in the 2008 DPRK census, I attempt to construct a rough ranking of standards of living in different provinces of the DPRK (Table 2). Caveats apply in determining the accuracy of this ranking.
February 21st, 2010 at 8:51 pm
[…] UPDATE 1: Oikono did some good work analyzing the census data here. […]
April 6th, 2010 at 9:57 am
Nice job. Do you have any thoughts as to the reliability of these figures? Granted a lot of them are not flattering to North Korea but for instance the figure that downsizes the army…is that reliable? And how do you have population growth when infant mortality is up and life expectancy down?
April 6th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
Frankly speaking, no one has any idea on how reliable the information is. There are no way to independently verify the information, although inconsistencies (such as what you mention) could indicate some biases.
As for the last point, it is possible to have population growth. This should instead be reflected in a slight aging population. I am not a demographer so someone with more expertise might be better able to talk about this - I think a South Korean researcher did some work analyzing the data (and estimating the number of deaths in the 1994 famine)
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