Cost of Living in North Korea
Image credit: Stefan Krasowski from New York, NY, USA
Purchasing Power
We do not show a purchasing-power multiplier here yet because we do not have defensible PPP data for this country.
Cities in North Korea
Income Category
Population
Child Education
Public-schooling rules are not sourced for North Korea yet. Country-level enrollment, instruction-language, and homeschool notes will appear here once verified.
Childcare & Domestic Help
Nanny, housekeeper, and driver pricing is not yet sourced for North Korea. We publish this section only when we can tie it to verified local samples or a clearly marked country fallback.
Healthcare
System strength, outcome signals, facility coverage, and self-pay visibility in North Korea.
Method: country metrics come from public system indicators, facility coverage reflects mapped providers we can inventory, direct pricing only reflects observed self-pay pages, and relative care cost can fall back to broad cost-of-living healthcare indices. Sparse pricing does not imply sparse healthcare availability.
Healthcare system
StrongGood national coverage, strong doctor availability, and solid hospital-bed capacity support this rating.
Public care
MixedRelatively low patient cost-sharing help, but public funding looks lighter.
Private care
LimitedSelf-pay pricing transparency is still sparse weigh on this rating.
UHC coverage
77/100
2023
Physicians
3.63/1k
2017
Hospital beds
12.8/1k
2018
Out of pocket
0%
2025
Outcome signals
Life expectancy
73.7 yrs
2024
Maternal mortality
67/100k
2023
Neonatal mortality
8.9/1k
2024
International patient readiness
LimitedThere is visible specialty depth help, but price transparency is still sparse.
Pricing transparency
LimitedPublished self-pay prices are scarce and few facilities expose web pages we can verify weigh on this rating.
Facility coverage
Self-pay pricing visibility
No verified self-pay prices are published for the tracked facilities in North Korea yet.
This usually reflects low online price transparency rather than a lack of healthcare providers.
Notable facilities
System metrics: World Bank WDI · Updated 2026-06-01
Safety & Governance
Street Safety
Source: Numbeo where a city row is matched; otherwise World Bank WGI and country-level safety context.
Political Stability
World Bank WGI scale: -2.5 to +2.5.
Wages by Sector
| Sector | Median |
|---|---|
| Administrative & Support Services | — |
| Agriculture & Farming | — |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | — |
| Construction | — |
| Education | — |
| Finance & Insurance | — |
| Healthcare & Social Work | — |
| Hospitality & Food Service | — |
| Information & Technology | — |
| Manufacturing | — |
| Mining & Quarrying | — |
| Other Services | — |
| Professional & Scientific Services | — |
| Real Estate | — |
| Retail & Wholesale Trade | — |
| Transport & Logistics | — |
| Utilities | — |
2024 annual wages in North Korea · Source: GDP-derived estimate
Visa Information (US passport)
Short-stay entry
US passport holders need advance travel authorization or a visa before entry.
About North Korea
North Korea is a low-income East Asia and Pacific country of 26,498,823 people where Pyongyang is the capital, but ordinary relocation comparisons mostly break down because foreign residence is effectively off-limits. Its cost level cannot be placed against the regional average in a useful way: access is extremely restricted, tourism is limited to guided tours, and general expat life is not a practical option. Korean is the official language, internet access is extremely limited and largely unavailable, and healthcare is limited and unreliable for foreigners. The climate is temperate, with cold winters and warm summers, but that is secondary to the bigger issue: an authoritarian political environment, unpredictable safety conditions, and severe limits on personal freedom make North Korea unsuitable for standard international relocation.
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Common questions about North Korea
Sourced from SortaRich's public-data ranking engine — every figure links to its institutional source.
What visa do I need to move to North Korea?
To move to North Korea you have these visa options: Tourist entry: visa_required. Visa rules change frequently — confirm the current terms with the official immigration authority before booking flights.
Source: SortaRich Visa Database
What are the best cities to live in North Korea?
The best cities to live in North Korea are Pyongyang — those are the most-searched options among the 1 cities profiled in the SortaRich database. Each city page includes a personalized PPP comparison versus your home city plus subnational price data where available.
Source: SortaRich City Index