Census figures indicate that the capital is increasing internal migration

The final report for the North Korea’s 2008 census lists Pyongyang as the only city in North Korea with a population greater than one million. Pyongyang’s 3,255,288 residents account for 13.9 percent of the entire North Korean population. This is lower than the estimated percentage of the total South Korean population residing in Seoul, which was 20.8 percent as of the 2005 census.

However, it also indicates that the “revolutionary capital” of Pyongyang is functioning as a black hole, drawing in North Korean workers and resources. Indeed, whereas only 3.5 percent of the total North Korean population aged five or older, or 427,376 people, are domestic migrants who had moved between counties within the past years, some 8.6 percent of Pyongyang residents have domestic migration experience, a far greater percentage than in other regions. This represents 35 percent of all people in the country with domestic migration experience. This means that internal migration is rare for North Korean society as a whole, but relatively frequent in the case of Pyongyang. The internal migration rate in South Korea is 17.1 percent in 2009, with 11.6 percent of transfer taking place within cities or provinces and 5.5 between cities and provinces.

The census also shows around six of every ten North Koreans to be living in cities. The population in agricultural villages is 9,194,466 people, or 39.4 percent, while the urban population is 14,155,393 people, or 60.6 percent. Infant mortality, at 19.3 per 1,000 live births, is lower than the world average of 46, but far higher than the 4.1 recorded by South Korea in 2006. Average life expectancy was 64.33 years for men and 71.26 years for women, with the 6.93 year difference between men and women, higher than the world average of 4.4 years. The life expectancy figures were roughly twelve years below the respective figures for men and women in South Korea as of 2008, which showed men living an average of 76.5 years and women an average of 83.3 years.

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