Quality of life comparison

compared to

If you lived in Eritrea instead of Cook Islands, you would:

Health

be 94.0% less likely to be obese

In Cook Islands, 72.4% of adults are obese as of 2024. In Eritrea, that number is 4.3% of people as of 2024.

View global rankings →

live 8.2 years less

In Cook Islands, the average life expectancy is 77 years (74 years for men, 80 years for women) as of 2022. In Eritrea, that number is 69 years (67 years for men, 71 years for women) as of 2024.

View global rankings →

have 93.5% fewer doctors per person

Cook Islands has 13.4 doctors per 10,000 people as of 2019. Eritrea has 0.9 as of 2022.

View global rankings →

Life

have 2.4 times more children

In Cook Islands, there are approximately 12.1 babies per 1,000 people as of 2024. In Eritrea, there are 28.7 babies per 1,000 people as of 2024.

View global rankings →

be 55.1% more likely to die during infancy

In Cook Islands, approximately 15.9 children (per 1,000 live births) die before they reach the age of one as of 2022. In Eritrea, on the other hand, 24.7 children do as of 2024.

View global rankings →

Basic Needs

be 59.0% less likely to have internet access

In Cook Islands, approximately 64.8% of the population has internet access as of 2021. In Eritrea, about 26.6% do as of 2022.

View global rankings →

Expenditures

spend 15.0% more on healthcare

Cook Islands spends 3.2% of its total GDP on healthcare as of 2020. In Eritrea, that number is 3.7% of GDP as of 2023.

View global rankings →

Geography

see 18.6 times more coastline

Cook Islands has a total of 120 km of coastline. In Eritrea, that number is 2,234 km.

View global rankings →

Safety

be 4.2 times more likely to be murdered

Cook Islands has a homicide rate of 3.5 per 100,000 people as of 2012. In Eritrea, that number is 14.6 per 100,000 as of 2012.

View global rankings →

Infrastructure

find 99.1% less home broadband

Cook Islands has 18.2 fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people as of 2022. Eritrea has 0.2 as of 2022.

View global rankings →

Sources: The World Factbook (2020–2024), World Bank (2022–2024), United Nations SDG Indicators (2012–2022), World Health Organization (2024). How we calculate this

Compare further: Cook Islands vs. Eritrea

Cost of Living Comparison · 5 categories - 2026 data
Eritrea is 33.2% cheaper than Cook Islands overall
→
Size Comparison · See true size
Cook Islands is about 498 times smaller than Eritrea.
→
Moving from Cook Islands to Eritrea · Cost, visas & climate
Compare cost of living, salary and climate.
→

Eritrea: At a glance

Eritrea is a sovereign country in Africa, with a total land area of approximately 101,000 sq km. After independence from Italian colonial control in 1941 and 10 years of British administrative control, the UN established Eritrea as an autonomous region within the Ethiopian federation in 1952. Ethiopia's full annexation of Eritrea as a province 10 years later sparked a violent 30-year struggle for independence that ended in 1991 with Eritrean rebels defeating government forces. Eritreans overwhelmingly approved independence in a 1993 referendum. ISAIAS Afworki has been Eritrea's only president since independence; his rule, particularly since 2001, has been highly autocratic and repressive. His government has created a highly militarized society by pursuing an unpopular program of mandatory conscription into national service, sometimes of indefinite length. A two-and-a-half-year border war with Ethiopia that erupted in 1998 ended under UN auspices in December 2000. A UN peacekeeping operation was established that monitored a 25 km-wide Temporary Security Zone. The Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) created in April 2003 was tasked "to delimit and demarcate the colonial treaty border based on pertinent colonial treaties (1900, 1902, and 1908) and applicable international law." The EEBC on 30 November 2007 remotely demarcated the border, assigning the town of Badme to Eritrea, despite Ethiopia's maintaining forces there from the time of the 1998-2000 war. Eritrea insisted that the UN terminate its peacekeeping mission on 31 July 2008. Eritrea has accepted the EEBC's "virtual demarcation" decision and repeatedly called on Ethiopia to remove its troops. Ethiopia has not accepted the demarcation decision, and neither party has entered into meaningful dialogue to resolve the impasse. Eritrea is subject to several UN Security Council Resolutions (from 2009, 2011, and 2012) imposing various military and economic sanctions, in view of evidence that it has supported armed opposition groups in the region.
Read more

How big is Eritrea compared to Cook Islands? See an in-depth size comparison.

Share this

Ask the Elsewhere Community

Join the Elsewhere community and ask a question about Eritrea or Cook Islands. It's a free, question-and-answer based forum to discuss what life is like in countries and cities around the world.