If you lived in Eritrea instead of North Korea, you would:

Health

be 26.5% less likely to be obese

In North Korea, 6.8% of adults are obese as of 2016. In Eritrea, that number is 5.0% of people as of 2016.

live 4.9 years less

In North Korea, the average life expectancy is 72 years (68 years for men, 76 years for women) as of 2022. In Eritrea, that number is 67 years (64 years for men, 70 years for women) as of 2022.

Economy

be 77.3% less likely to be unemployed

In North Korea, 25.6% of adults are unemployed as of 2013. In Eritrea, that number is 5.8% as of 2017.

Life

have 90.3% more children

In North Korea, there are approximately 14.2 babies per 1,000 people as of 2022. In Eritrea, there are 27.0 babies per 1,000 people as of 2022.

be 5.4 times more likely to die during childbirth

In North Korea, approximately 89.0 women per 100,000 births die during labor as of 2017. In Eritrea, 480.0 women do as of 2017.

be 23.4% less likely to be literate

In North Korea, the literacy rate is 100.0% as of 2015. In Eritrea, it is 76.6% as of 2018.

be 86.9% more likely to die during infancy

In North Korea, approximately 22.2 children (per 1,000 live births) die before they reach the age of one as of 2022. In Eritrea, on the other hand, 41.5 children do as of 2022.

Basic Needs

be 80.8% more likely to have access to electricity

In North Korea, approximately 26% of people have electricity access (36% in urban areas, and 11% in rural areas) as of 2019. In Eritrea, that number is 47% of people on average (95% in urban areas, and 13% in rural areas) as of 2019.

be 38.8% less likely to have access to improved drinking water

In North Korea, approximately 94% of people have improved drinking water access (98% in urban areas, and 89% in rural areas) as of 2020. In Eritrea, that number is 58% of people on average (73% in urban areas, and 53% in rural areas) as of 2015.

Geography

see 10.5% less coastline

North Korea has a total of 2,495 km of coastline. In Eritrea, that number is 2,234 km.


The statistics above were calculated using the following data sources: The World Factbook.

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 North Korea? See an in-depth size comparison.

Share this

ASK THE ELSEWHERE COMMUNITY

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