Limited scoring coverage for North Korea
The World Bank (WDI) and V-Dem — our primary sources for the Overall Score and its Economy category — don't provide the complete series we score North Korea from, so North Korea's Overall Score and those categories show “No data” rather than an estimated number. This is a disclosed sourcing gap, not a fabricated zero.
Everything shown below is still sourced from providers that do cover North Korea: geography, government and named industries from the CIA World Factbook; population and demographics from UN World Population Prospects 2024; the energy mix from Ember; and mineral reserves from USGS.
The record in plain text — overall score, categories, strengths and risks, momentum, resilience, strategic position, and diagnostics.
Strongest on Quality of Life (57/100) — sharpest risk, governance weakness.
| Category | Score | Key driver |
|---|---|---|
| Economy | — | Labor Participation |
| Governance | 22/100 | — |
| Quality of Life | 57/100 | Basic Sanitation Access |
| Innovation | 35/100 | — |
| Stability | 56/100 | Violence & Safety |
Derived — composites of sourced indicators. Full audit trail in Data Provenance below.
| Signal | Value | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| National Momentum | — | now 52, versus 52 three years ago, across 5 categories |
| Resilience | — | Pandemic 59 · Banking Crisis 26 · War / Conflict 60 · Natural Disaster 56 |
| Strategic Position | 36/100 | Demographics 66 · Resources 17 · Stability 56 · Education 33 · Technology 35 · Geopolitics 11 |
North Korea has no overall score yet — nation-wide indicator coverage is below the reporting threshold. Momentum: flat versus three years ago (now 52). Its strongest area is Quality of Life (57/100). The risk drawing attention: Governance weakness.
All 192 tracked indicators — 110 sourced, 82 derived — each with its exact source, series code, and refresh cadence. The complete source-by-source catalog is on the methodology page.
Full catalog →Per-indicator sources are always public on the methodology page — Analyst assembles the complete ledger in context.
North Korea's Stability score is 56 out of 100 (moderate), blended from World Bank governance indicators, V-Dem and UCDP conflict data.
North Korea's Quality of Life score is 57 out of 100 (moderate), covering safety, healthcare, education, basic living conditions, environment and living conditions context from sourced indicators.
North Korea's Governance score is 22 out of 100 (weak), from World Bank governance indicators and V-Dem democracy data.
North Korea's Innovation score is 35 out of 100 (weak), from World Bank connectivity and business indicators, WIPO patent data and the Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index.
On NationsHelm's momentum read, North Korea is unchanged versus three years ago — 52 then and now — across the 5 categories with time-series coverage.
North Korea's defining asset is labor participation, while its sharpest risk is governance weakness — transparency 17 — the category's weakest input (0/100).
North Korea's Strategic Position score is 36 out of 100 (weak), weighing demographics, resources, stability, education, technology and geopolitics — each component sourced or derived, with unsourced components dropped rather than counted as zero.
On NationsHelm's Opportunity Index, North Korea scores 44 out of 100 for Invest In — one of its three vectors, alongside Start a Business and Emigrate To. Every input is sourced, so treat it as a starting map, not advice.